Subject: [NT] Friendlies

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)

Thanks for those links. It is nice to see that Canadian up and comers.
We may be small, but, Scotland maybe smaller. And maybe this is the week that Canada hits an even 100 users!

Nice game, we just need to many shots to score. Lorenzo struggled in the first half (injured) but some good move from him in the second half which made us win the game. It doesn't made him MOM but still nice game from an injured player. Ribeiro had a nice game too along with well all the players very well done. I just can't decide who can be the MOM.

My apologies for this match. Normally I set a tactic Sunday-Monday in case something bad happens. Thursday (after the last form update) I do the major tweaks. Friday I do minor tweaks.

Something very bad happened Thursday. :(

As such, there were no tweaks, no substitutions, no orders. Sorry to Deja, Lorne, and Nturn whose players were all supposed to make an appearance in the second half.

This tactic was one of the alternates for the Lithuania match. I intended make it more offensive - Lorenzo in particular would have been better further upfield. (It's questionable whether Lorenzo would have even played SI had I been around).

I share your frustration about the quantity of shots needed to score. We had a number of quality opportunities this match. Once again we came up against a hot goalkeeper who made a number of fine stops (by contrast, I think Scotland only had 1 shot on target - goal). Our shooting rating was quite poor - thanks to Lorenzo and Ferranti. Biron is a respectable striker of the ball.

MOM? Overall I'd say the Scottish keeper. For Canada I'd say Biron - but I've got a little bias. :)

I will do the match stats sometime.

Scotland Stats

Though the passing stats aren't spectacular, I thought the team moved the ball pretty well - especially before Nesta was sent off.

Ferranti was the top passer, but a defender was second (% wise). Not really a fluke - Zanardi is a promising player.

Tackling stats weren't great. Touchette, in particular, had a bit of trouble with his man (Connolly).

I haven't settled on a line-up for U21 vs. South Africa. I've been waiting for the promised changes to be activated. At the moment I can't set any orders, let alone the new options.

Assuming the change tactic option is available, it will affect how I choose the line-up. So stay tuned. :)
(edited)

I mis-interpreted the news message (darn Gibbage). There will be no visible ME changes this weekend.

Now that I'm stopped waiting for new options to appear, I should have a line-up shortly. :)

Ok. Here's the program for U21 vs. South Africa this weekend.

Joey Biron, 21 yrs, 11 caps, Valiant FC
Myles Boissieres, 19 yrs, 0 caps, Partizan 74
Yves Castillo Lara, 20 yrs, 2 cap, Pills United
Maxime Fluet, 20 yrs, 0 caps, HL Football
Connor Foster, 20 yrs, 0 caps, Fool United (Finland), Ben`s eleven youth
Mansor Lemaître, 21 yrs, 0 caps, Fianna FC
Vince Lemieux, 19 yrs, 1 cap, Real Hawkes
Kip Nesta, 21 yrs, 5 caps, DB Rovers
Pierre-Charles Ribeiro, 21 yrs, 6 caps, Jalea of Scarberia
Shawn Rogers, 21 yrs, 0 caps, Jalea of Scarberia
Zachary Sebrango, 21 yrs, 5 caps, Furia Kolberg (Poland), Hensall Athletic youth
Aaron Sewell, 19 yrs, 0 caps, Real Vancouver FC
Ibrahim Sheperd, 21 yrs, 0 caps, Real Hawkes
Satinder Touchette, 21 yrs, 8 caps, Partizan 74
Gonzalo Verville, 20 yrs, 4 caps, Snowhares
Paul-Arnaud Zanardi, 21 yrs, 2 cap Furia Kolberg (Poland), Black&Oil youth

I've received a bit of feedback about the line-up, and thought I'd clarify the thought process.

Where possible I've tried to focus on (who I consider) the top prospects - players whom I think will make a lasting impression on the NT.

This means that in a few positions we are using a 19 or 20 year old that is perhaps a level or two below an available 21 year old.

I think this is the proper approach, especially considering we are in week twelve. Giving the training bonus to rising stars is, IMO, more important then a courtesy cap to a 21 who has slim long term National expectations.

There are a few exceptions - Sheperd and Rogers were called up specifically to cover injuries. Ferranti, clearly a rising star, was left out due to lousy form.

Hope this clarifies things. :)

Slept through my alarm. :P So well underway against South Africa.

The strength of South Africa U21 is up front. Some nice young strikers - Wayne Mapela in particular looks like he has a bright future. The weakness of South Africa U21 is in defense - not a lot of skill or depth at that position. I think another 343 from them is probable.

We’re using a 3-5-2. I’m not expecting much width from them, and our outside defenders are fairly fleet - should be able to get out there if they have too. Up front, Biron should have a good day against the South African defense, and the two 19 year olds (Boisierres and Sewell) have a decent opportunity to succeed in their “blooding”.

I’m interested to see how the midfield performs. Ball recovery hasn’t been a traditional strength of Canadian midfielders - but that’s changing in this young crop. I’m expecting some good possession football to result from strong ball recovery and slick ball movement.

LINE-UP
Castillo-Lara
Zanardi, Touchette, Sebrango
Sheperd (Fleury - 70), Foster (Lemieux - 60), Ribeiro, Nesta, Verville
Biron, Boisierres (Sewell - 46)

BENCH
Lemaitre
Rogers

Penalties - Biron
Freekicks - Foster

Although the balance of play was with Canada, the scoring chances were fairly even in this one. Castillo-Lara made 4 nice saves. I hope Parker was watching.

A fair part of South Africa's pressure was self inflicted. The Canadian back-line panicked repeatedly, and kicked a ton of balls out (Zanardi in particular). Zanardi just had a poor game all-round, as Lakay made him look bad several times.

The midfield was solid, if unspectacular. The star (IMO) was injury call-up Sheperd who saw quite a bit of the ball, and played very well down the left side. Ribeiro had a good amount of penetration, but often had trouble hooking up with a player in the box. I was expecting more from the 9-spot. I thought it would be the fulcrum of the attack. But Foster was very quiet. Lemieux less so, but still not the influence I expected there.

Biron looked good up front. Both Boisierres and Sewell had trouble shaking off their markers, and most of the striker service in this one required breaking at least one tackle.

Back to qualifying next week.

Good game!
I hope Lara will have nice saves tommorow ;)

He played very well - better then I expected. :)

You would have to watch Parker's last 7 NT matches to see him make as many saves. :S

Edit: Had thought I'd start Lemaitre in this one. But due to form, Castillo Lara got the opportunity.
(edited)

South Africa Stats

I cut off the "Totals" line. Here they are:

Passes Attempted 131
Passes Made 58.5
Passing % 44.7

Tackles Attempted 50
Tackles Made 32.5
Tackle % 65

Shots Attempted 9
Shots on Target 5
% On Target 56
% Scored 22

Stats bear out my initial reaction - passing wasn't super sharp. Defense passing numbers were low due to all the panic kick outs. I was surprised with Nesta and Verville tho. Usually the DMs have better passing numbers. They made a lot of speculative attempts.

Overall tackling numbers were good, though the defense had a tougher time then usual. As expected, the midfield - particularly Shepherd - did a nice job in ball recovering the ball.

It was understandable that #9 (Foster - Lemieux) didn't have a huge impact on the match. Tactically I had him a little too far forward at times. He also had to work through the heart of the South African defense given their 3-2 at the back. Most times the best option was to kick the ball out to one of the flank middies (which was where most all our good chances came from).

Australia this weekend with the youth (21 & under) squad.

During my time with New Zealand I started to follow Australia more closely (obvious geographic rival), and it quickly became one of my favourite NTs to watch. Their senior squad has a gifted midfield, and their manager (Cometer) isn't afraid to play attacking football. This is a bit of a departure from his club team where he is a little more conservative. Not sure if the NT gives him the chance to unleash his wild side and explore some options not available to his club team, or if the Australia assistants whispering in his ear (notably Achmid) manage to stoke more aggression in him. :)

Australia has a bit of an advantage in that (as far as I can tell) they haven't played any true youth matches since last season. Canada has played a couple, so they have a better idea what is coming.

From what I can discern of the Australia youth team, it is built similar to it's senior side. Strong midfield, decent strikers and defense.

Our side is healthy, and aside from Ferranti, in decent form. I've set a line-up that will be re-evaluated after form-training Thursday. There are a handful of players in the line-up whose club teams have a qualifying match. I have given these managers the option of sitting their players to protect their availability for Sunday, tho I'd be a little surprised if any of them took me up on it. :)

Sent messages to the managers of participating players. No "program" in advance - Cometer doesn't need any help. :)