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Subject: [NT] Friendlies
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.
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.
Pfft. It's easier for you as you know the squad better than I know the USA one, always worth taking a look at new players :P
Heehee. I imagine you'll be able to sort something out in a week's time. :D
There are some players in that group (Barrera, Lavrynenko, Madden - perhaps Holden) who are in the long term plans for the NT. It's wouldn't be detrimental in any way to use them.
I'm not saying those are the four who will suit up. ;) May have to use the odd fringe player to put a competitive 11 on the pitch.
There are some players in that group (Barrera, Lavrynenko, Madden - perhaps Holden) who are in the long term plans for the NT. It's wouldn't be detrimental in any way to use them.
I'm not saying those are the four who will suit up. ;) May have to use the odd fringe player to put a competitive 11 on the pitch.
May be a little delay sending notice this week. The Biron injury has thrown a monkey-wrench into the USA plans, as he will likely need to be replaced by an over-ager (which then has a chain reaction through the rest of the line-up).
a win would vault us past the US in the world rankings [aja]
Would be nice. :) Mr. Gibbage was kind enough to post the US's line-up. Looks pretty solid. With past matches still inoperative I haven't been able to do my usual homework. :S
You've not beaten me when I've been NT manager - not something I am planning to be changed :P.
Underway against USA.
The Biron injury made a bit of a mess of things, but I decided to keep the same approach - which meant subbing an over-ager (W Lavrynenko) at striker. This cost an over-ager on defense (would have been Ambrozic of Jalea of Scarberia - IMO one of the best Canadian players never to be capped).
The US would appear to have a slight advantage at all positions. The greatest disparity is in goal. Castillo Lara will have to play his tail off. :) If he does, it should be competitive.
Mr. Gibbage seems to favour a 442 with a couple of wide offensive-minded midfielders. He has the personnel available to use that approach. Smuckers is a nice young winger. It appears USA will use 2 over-agers as strikers, 1 in midfield and 1 on defense (which, coincidentally, is also how Canada will deploy them). I don’t think either of the US strikers (Ventura and Lara) are technique monsters, but I could be mistaken.
442 again from Canada (3rd week in a row). May seem kind of predictable, but the arrangement has been quite different each time. This week the defense drops well back. The midfield also falls back, and will (hopefully) play a much greater role in ball-recovery. The idea is that, after playing the defense up a couple weeks in a row, the US may pull their strikers back a bit to stay on-side. Canada’s midfield and wide defenders put pressure on the US midfield inducing them to pass the ball early to wide open strikers, who then have to run at the Canadian defense. It won’t work well if the US positions their strikers aggressively.
There is only 1 offensive-minded mid for Canada (tho the outside guys do get involved in the play). This makes striker positioning really important, as it’s less likely balls from the back will be “filtered” - offsides are a little more likely. Unfortunately, with past-matches unavailable I can’t scout this - so making my best guess.
Holden looks like a red-card waiting to happen (given his form). With luck, the referee will be kind today. :) Players in red are scheduled to make their NT debut today.
Line-Up
Castillo Lara
Holden, G Cochran, Sebrango, Touchette
Barrera, Nesta, Verville (Lemieux - 60), Ribiero (Ferranti - 55)
A Cochran, W Lavrynenko
Bench
Lemaître
Zanardi
Lorenzo
Edit: fix tag
(edited)
The Biron injury made a bit of a mess of things, but I decided to keep the same approach - which meant subbing an over-ager (W Lavrynenko) at striker. This cost an over-ager on defense (would have been Ambrozic of Jalea of Scarberia - IMO one of the best Canadian players never to be capped).
The US would appear to have a slight advantage at all positions. The greatest disparity is in goal. Castillo Lara will have to play his tail off. :) If he does, it should be competitive.
Mr. Gibbage seems to favour a 442 with a couple of wide offensive-minded midfielders. He has the personnel available to use that approach. Smuckers is a nice young winger. It appears USA will use 2 over-agers as strikers, 1 in midfield and 1 on defense (which, coincidentally, is also how Canada will deploy them). I don’t think either of the US strikers (Ventura and Lara) are technique monsters, but I could be mistaken.
442 again from Canada (3rd week in a row). May seem kind of predictable, but the arrangement has been quite different each time. This week the defense drops well back. The midfield also falls back, and will (hopefully) play a much greater role in ball-recovery. The idea is that, after playing the defense up a couple weeks in a row, the US may pull their strikers back a bit to stay on-side. Canada’s midfield and wide defenders put pressure on the US midfield inducing them to pass the ball early to wide open strikers, who then have to run at the Canadian defense. It won’t work well if the US positions their strikers aggressively.
There is only 1 offensive-minded mid for Canada (tho the outside guys do get involved in the play). This makes striker positioning really important, as it’s less likely balls from the back will be “filtered” - offsides are a little more likely. Unfortunately, with past-matches unavailable I can’t scout this - so making my best guess.
Holden looks like a red-card waiting to happen (given his form). With luck, the referee will be kind today. :) Players in red are scheduled to make their NT debut today.
Line-Up
Castillo Lara
Holden, G Cochran, Sebrango, Touchette
Barrera, Nesta, Verville (Lemieux - 60), Ribiero (Ferranti - 55)
A Cochran, W Lavrynenko
Bench
Lemaître
Zanardi
Lorenzo
Edit: fix tag
(edited)
Could have turned out a little better. Canadian strikers had some really nice opportunities that went for naught (USA defenders did a better job taking chances on their net then our strikers :D).
I expected the width, but stuck with 4 at the back. With mostly U21s, I was hoping their wingers didn't have sufficient passing to cross consistently. So I focussed our efforts in the middle of the pitch, and dared their width to beat us. It did.
I've been using a lot more square throws recently. For some reason this match I went back to almost exclusively line throws which Mr. Gibbage gambled I would do. A good call by him, and a poor tactical move on my part (I could easily have done line throws on one side and squares on the other, or mixed them up more).
I had difficulty concentrating on the match - some friends are over helping drywall my basement which I found a little distracting. I may have some be able to offer some better feedback-reflection later in the day.
I expected the width, but stuck with 4 at the back. With mostly U21s, I was hoping their wingers didn't have sufficient passing to cross consistently. So I focussed our efforts in the middle of the pitch, and dared their width to beat us. It did.
I've been using a lot more square throws recently. For some reason this match I went back to almost exclusively line throws which Mr. Gibbage gambled I would do. A good call by him, and a poor tactical move on my part (I could easily have done line throws on one side and squares on the other, or mixed them up more).
I had difficulty concentrating on the match - some friends are over helping drywall my basement which I found a little distracting. I may have some be able to offer some better feedback-reflection later in the day.
One thing that I did pick up on is that when throw ins were deep in the USA half, there was no one to throw it to. It is annoying though getting the right setup for corners and throw ins there though.
I'm surprised no one got carded in that game though!
(edited)
I'm surprised no one got carded in that game though!
(edited)
There was a target - player #10 moved over to receive the throw. One time he stood very far back, but that (I assume) was a tactical discipline issue. If you look again, I think you'll see there was a target (Ribiero or Ferranti) in every other case.
Couple other points on the tactic.
Defense fell back too far at times in our own end. An oversight on my part. I was very conscious of not surrendering ground in our own end, but there was a ball position where the line was too deep.
The #10 player wasn't effective (not blaming the players but the tactic). I placed him primarily on the side the ball was not, hoping to get a diagonal pass from one of the central midfielders that would be parlayed into a quick feed to the weak side striker. But the passing lanes were often blocked, and #10 received little service.
By my (obviously biased) count quality scoring chances were 5-4 for the US. So even with these tactical mistakes a little better finishing would have meant for a better day.
Barrera had a good match. Sebrango, though he didn't do a lot of tackling, was very active in the defense. No real poor performances.
Defense fell back too far at times in our own end. An oversight on my part. I was very conscious of not surrendering ground in our own end, but there was a ball position where the line was too deep.
The #10 player wasn't effective (not blaming the players but the tactic). I placed him primarily on the side the ball was not, hoping to get a diagonal pass from one of the central midfielders that would be parlayed into a quick feed to the weak side striker. But the passing lanes were often blocked, and #10 received little service.
By my (obviously biased) count quality scoring chances were 5-4 for the US. So even with these tactical mistakes a little better finishing would have meant for a better day.
Barrera had a good match. Sebrango, though he didn't do a lot of tackling, was very active in the defense. No real poor performances.
Interesting match-up this weekend. Scotland has long been the model "small" Sokker nation, hitting well above their weight user-wise.
The last few seasons the small user-base seems to have caught up with them somewhat. They struggled in qualifying last go round, and had a quiet World Cup. Qualifying hasn't started smooth this time either. The past few seasons have seen them drop quite a bit in the rankings.
Canada is in a very similar situation, having slipped out of the top 20 (through no fault of our own - simply being overtaken by some of the larger nations). Interesting to note that Canada actually has more users then Scotland ATM (don't recall this being true before) and is ranked a little higher.
21 and Under this weekend. These are the players likely to take part. Most have played already this week, so hopefully there won't be any injury surprises.
Guy Bertrand, 21 yrs, 1 cap, Black&Oil
Joey Biron, 21 yrs, 7 caps, Valiant FC
Myles Boissieres, 19 yrs, 0 caps, Partizan 74
Yves Castillo Lara, 20 yrs, 1 cap, Pills United
Gordon Cochran, 21 yrs, 1 cap, Third Lanark AC
Gaspare Ferranti, 21 yrs, 2 caps, Black&Oil
Mansor Lemaître, 21 yrs, 0 caps, Fianna FC
Vince Lemieux, 19 yrs, 1 cap, Real Hawkes
Basile Lorenzo, 21 ys, 2 caps, New West Stampedos
Kip Nesta, 21 yrs, 4 caps, DB Rovers
Pierre-Charles Ribeiro, 21 yrs, 4 caps, Jalea of Scarberia
Zachary Sebrango, 21 yrs, 4 caps, Furia Kolberg (Poland), Hensall Athletic youth
Satinder Touchette, 21 yrs, 7 caps, Partizan 74
Gonzalo Verville, 20 yrs, 2 caps, Snowhares
Paul-Arnaud Zanardi, 21 yrs, 1 cap Furia Kolberg (Poland), Black&Oil youth
The other player is likely to be:
Colin Li, 21 yrs, 0 caps, KiNdEr MaFiA (Poland), HL Football youth
Or
Shawn Rogers, 21 yrs, 0 caps, Jalea of Scarberia
(edited)
The last few seasons the small user-base seems to have caught up with them somewhat. They struggled in qualifying last go round, and had a quiet World Cup. Qualifying hasn't started smooth this time either. The past few seasons have seen them drop quite a bit in the rankings.
Canada is in a very similar situation, having slipped out of the top 20 (through no fault of our own - simply being overtaken by some of the larger nations). Interesting to note that Canada actually has more users then Scotland ATM (don't recall this being true before) and is ranked a little higher.
21 and Under this weekend. These are the players likely to take part. Most have played already this week, so hopefully there won't be any injury surprises.
Guy Bertrand, 21 yrs, 1 cap, Black&Oil
Joey Biron, 21 yrs, 7 caps, Valiant FC
Myles Boissieres, 19 yrs, 0 caps, Partizan 74
Yves Castillo Lara, 20 yrs, 1 cap, Pills United
Gordon Cochran, 21 yrs, 1 cap, Third Lanark AC
Gaspare Ferranti, 21 yrs, 2 caps, Black&Oil
Mansor Lemaître, 21 yrs, 0 caps, Fianna FC
Vince Lemieux, 19 yrs, 1 cap, Real Hawkes
Basile Lorenzo, 21 ys, 2 caps, New West Stampedos
Kip Nesta, 21 yrs, 4 caps, DB Rovers
Pierre-Charles Ribeiro, 21 yrs, 4 caps, Jalea of Scarberia
Zachary Sebrango, 21 yrs, 4 caps, Furia Kolberg (Poland), Hensall Athletic youth
Satinder Touchette, 21 yrs, 7 caps, Partizan 74
Gonzalo Verville, 20 yrs, 2 caps, Snowhares
Paul-Arnaud Zanardi, 21 yrs, 1 cap Furia Kolberg (Poland), Black&Oil youth
The other player is likely to be:
Colin Li, 21 yrs, 0 caps, KiNdEr MaFiA (Poland), HL Football youth
Or
Shawn Rogers, 21 yrs, 0 caps, Jalea of Scarberia
(edited)