Subject: [NT] Friendlies

This weekend friendly is vs Austria and after that on 27th vs Israel.

sub 21???

A squad both

Tactics is all set and managers have been notified.

This is now a WC Qualifying preview. :)

Put them in their place! :P

Nice match. Solid display by the side. Thought the Austrian keeper made a number of nice saves to keep it close.

Not too much drop off with the red card. Thought Austria's winger looked more dangerous then New Zealand's last week. Good wing play is IMO the way to spring that formation (not this tactic in particular - this general approach).

seems to be a recurring error with you Seca!!

than*

Barhilo the Grammar-Slammer. :) I'll try to work on that. :P

Tactics is set for this saturday game with Israel. Managers have been notified.

Here's hoping for a healthy match. :) Looks like most of the stars are being rested, but there are some useful players out there ... would be nice to keep everyone in one piece.

Got through healthy. :)

Pretty flat performance by the strikers. 1 shot a piece given that territorial advantage is disappointing. I don't like Lavrynenko as a defense-buster - just doesn't have the secondaries for it. Think he's better suited to a "sniper" role.

Thought Dehere played very well. Mauro showed some spark a few times.

I thought Chouinard was getting pace training with his current team ... he looked dreadfully slow. :( Second goal was very soft.

Seca:"Put them in their place! :P" did you mean Israel too? ;-)

Give us some credit mate..
Our tactic worked perfectly..
There is a reason for this 1 shot a piece from your strikers...
;-)
(Even against some of your subs it still was a great win for us since they are better than our starters and you have 5 more seasons in the game..)

As i understand you are the next NT coach , so Good luck next season..
:-)

No. :) That comment was in reference to last week's match. Slavko was careful not to endanger front-line players the week before qualifications, so an odd result was far more likely.

In truth I wasn't fond of the Israeli tactic. Playing 9 behind the ball is usually a recipe for disaster in Sokker - especially when they are staggered like that. In my experience it leads to copious back passes. I thought you were very fortunate in this match that your midfielders time and again chose the one available forward option instead of sending the ball backwards.

Your tactic did jam up the middle - which was a good tactical call. But Lavrynenko (our HT style striker) still got lots of service - my impression was that he was stripped of the ball far more often then he was denied the ball. Could be wrong tho - only watched the match once. That observation led me to think a "bull" like Biron would have been much more effective.

A nice result - if you are running again it should help the cause. I expect you'll get more of the "credit" you're seeking in Sokker Israel. :)

We are booked in with USA for this coming weekend.

There are player restrictions: U21, but you may use 4 over-agers so long as they have 10 or fewer caps.

Seem wacky? It is. But one has to remember who I was dealing with. ;) Was the best I could negotiate.

As for over-agers with 10 or fewer caps, there are 8 currently on the roster:

Barrera, A Cochran, Faria, Holden, W Lavrynenko, Madden, Mauro, Neil.

I'm not really looking to add any players (tho there is one I'm considering) so the over-agers will come from this group.

Having over-agers will cut a few deserving U21s out of a cap this weekend, which is a little unfortunate.