Subject: [NT] Friendlies

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

good luck

Thanks. :) Underway against Australia.

Bit of an experiment offensively this week. Have “loaded” our offensive players (save the winger) on the right side of the field. Hoping that Lorenzo and Biron will pick up each other’s fumbles and really put some pressure on the left side of the Australia defense. Ideally Lorenzo will let Biron be the trigger-man. Part of the experiment. :) (I have used tactics like this before, but usually I place the tandem centrally instead of off-set as in today’s match). May work, may not.

Australia has played a narrow defense fairly often recently. Think it suits their U21s - don’t really see a lot of defenders on their roster (looks like they’ve added a few more at the last moment). So we’ll use some width in the attack.

Defense much is the standard 4-2 used often with the U21s this season. Think it suits our personnel. Line is fairly aggressive in it’s positioning. Trying to restrict the amount of space the creative Australian midfield has to work with.

Line-Up
Lemaître
Sebrango, Cochran, Zanardi, Touchette
Verville, Nesta, Lemieux
Ribeiro, Biron, Lorenzo

Bench
Castillo Lara
Sheperd
Foster (46 for Lemieux)
Fluet (63 for Verville)
Boissieres (80 for Biron)

Biron penalties, Lemieux freebies.

I'd say we deserved better. Lots of quality chances - difficulty finishing.

The first Australia goal was particularly disappointing. Cochran was about 2 feet from the ball when he (and the rest of the defense) decided to clear out and leave it for Lemaitre who was no where near it and had no chance to get there. (Castillo Lara may have :D). I'm pretty sure O'Neill played way over his head. Sebrango is our best defender, and he was blowing head-on tackles.

Offensively I was reasonably pleased with the tactic. Thought the 2nd and 3rd goals were a result of the "loading". Lorenzo had great positioning throughout the match.

The drawback of the "loading" was that on a couple of occasions both Biron and Lorenzo went for the ball, pulling them both far out of position.

Will do that stats in the morning. :)

I'm pretty sure O'Neill played way over his head.

Seemed at least from my side as if he played pretty much the usual.

Was an interesting game, pretty sure our defender did the same thing as Cochran in the 2nd half which led to your striker getting a shot, can't remember if it was a goal or not though.

Canada certainly looked the stronger and I was a bit surprised you didn't actually get a slightly better result but I suppose it's a game of chances.

Heehee. I don't know O'Neill's stats, so I'll take your word for it. With that value and form, I'm surprised he could embarrass a very good defender pretty much at will. From my perspective, if O'Neill can do that to Sebrango, Biron should really be doing a number on Deeley, Foley and Bowyer.

I don't recall a similar line-jump situation in the Australia end. No Canada goals resulted from free balls. Not sure why the first one wasn't assisted - appeared Biron got on the end of a Lorenzo cross. Other two were both from nice passes.

Yeah I can see your point, could just be part of that random chance a lower player beats a better defender, I don't really know myself but at the time it didn't really surprise me. Most appeared to be from the side though.

82nd-83rd minute i think you'll find is the line jump thing although more of a sideways jump in our case. Didn't result in a goal though, but our 2nd def in line (ironically same position as your player moving out of line), decided instead of chasing the ball went sideways to his offensive position. Either way have seen similar jumps where they leave it to the keeper happen before and it does frustrate me at times. Wouldn't bother me so much if the striker gave up chase though but the striker keeps going.

I will watch for it when I do the stats. :)

And I don't mean to be whiny about O'Neill - just played better then I expected. :) Same for Bowyer, who I thought played very well.

Australia Stats

Stats describe the events fairly well. The offense was primarily channeled through Lorenzo. He did a great job establishing the zone, but did have some difficulty picking someone out. Not an easy task when the defense is backed in. But a little more sharpness may have made the difference.

Ribeiro made a couple of nice crosses, but also had trouble with his touch. Lemieux had an excellent match - there were a couple of times he ran with the ball where I would have liked him to pass, but otherwise he was sharp. Nesta did a good job hitting Lorenzo, but still isn't achieving the passing numbers I expect from him. Great tackling numbers from the midfield.

Defensively, it was good to be on the right-hand side. Anyone who was anywhere near the juggernauts (O'Neill and Beauchamps) had a bad day tackling - namely Verville, Sebrango and Cochran. Passing from the defense was relatively good - Touchette was fantastic - provided some wonderful balls for Lorenzo down the right flank.

Shooting was pretty good. Biron hit the net 6 of 7. Boissieres 1 for 1. Middies got 2 of their 5 shots on target. Deeley was up to the challenge.

I wasn't thrilled with out goal-tending. First goal Australia goal was a bit of a hash. Second goal was beautiful (Beauchamps dribbled through Verville, Sebrango and Cochran before making a perfect pass to O'Neill). IMO the 3rd goal was weak - reasonable distance, not a good shooting angle, and a defender occluding the striker from goal. I would hope those would be saved more often then not.

@ Cometer - I know the play you mean in the 82-83, but I don't think it's quite the same. I didn't notice the line push up. Either it's more subtle then the Aussie goal, or I've got my rose coloured glasses on. :D

probably wasn't really the same but pretty similar I thought, but there have been cases where it has been like Canada's case in the past and it's pretty frustrating, especially when they would have at least reached the striker. I think the closest defender should keep chasing even if the goalkeeper is coming out. Would certainly prevent cases where a defender would have beaten the goalkeeper and challenged the striker to the ball.

I didn't even notice that when I first watched, was only after you stated it that I went back and saw it.

Booked in with Norway for this Saturday. Our juniors vs. their juniors.

The following week is Slovensko. I haven't spoken to their coach, but I plan to ask for a senior squad match. Think it would be a good test heading into the World Cup.

I was all set to post the "program", but decided that since Norway is so close in the standings, I shouldn't give them any crumbs. So instead I'll message the managers and post the program closer to game time.

We have a contest winner playing in Clayton Houston. I was excited about him when he was called up - but he's dropped 4-5 levels of form since then. Hopefully it won't affect him too much.

Programs! Get yer programs!

vs. Norway

Joey Biron, 21 yrs, 13 caps, Valiant FC
Myles Boissieres, 19 yrs, 2 caps, Partizan 74
Yves Castillo Lara, 20 yrs, 3 cap, Pills United
Gordon Cochran, 21 yrs, 3 cap, Third Lanark AC
Maxime Fluet, 20 yrs, 2 caps, HL Football
Connor Foster, 20 yrs, 2 caps, Fool United (Finland), Ben`s eleven youth
Clayton Houston, 20 yrs, 0 caps, Hajduk Burnaby
Mansor Lemaître, 21 yrs, 1 cap, Fianna FC
Vince Lemieux, 19 yrs, 3 caps, Real Hawkes
Kip Nesta, 21 yrs, 7 caps, DB Rovers
Pierre-Charles Ribeiro, 21 yrs, 8 caps, Jalea of Scarberia
Zachary Sebrango, 21 yrs, 8 caps, Furia Kolberg (Poland), Hensall Athletic youth
Ibrahim Sheperd, 21 yrs, 1 cap, Real Hawkes
Satinder Touchette, 21 yrs, 10 caps, Partizan 74
Gonzalo Verville, 20 yrs, 6 caps, Snowhares
Paul-Arnaud Zanardi, 21 yrs, 4 cap Furia Kolberg (Poland), Black&Oil youth

Underway against Norway. A win would be kind of nice ... would close the gap a little on them (they are directly ahead of us in the standings).

Some trends I thought I noticed going through the Norway matches this season. Don’t use a central offensive middie much. Tend not to defend the flanks very well. Seem to like a blitzing defense (hold, hold, hold the defensive line, then scurry back to the 18 yard box).

We’re using a 3-3-2-2 with a couple of semi wing backs. Suits our personnel fine. 1 central DM should be plenty given they don’t use central O Ms that much. Semi wing backs should make things tougher for their wide mids - won’t be able to tackle through-the-back should the Norwegian mid get past them, but should intercept a number of passes and be able to chip balls out of play so the defense can reset.

Not attacking wide - probably should be. Have attacked with width a lot lately - think a change of pace is in order. The 2 offensive mids will be more effective if they only face 1 Norway DM – 2 Norway D Ms (a distinct possibility) will make things tougher.

The blitzing defense is great for a pace guy like Biron. Main concern offensively is the dilution factor - no offense to Houston, but I’m hoping he’s not the focus of the offense. If he gets all the service, the offense may sputter a little.

Goal keeper decision was tough. In the end I settled on Castillo Lara. He’s shown he can stop shots, and can do a much better job sweeping his area.

Line-Up
Castillo Lara
Touchette, Sebrango, Zanardi
Nesta, Verville, Sheperd
Lemieux, Ribiero
Biron, Houston

Bench
Lemaitre
Cochran (60 for Verville, shift with Touchette)
Foster (46 for Lemieux)
Fleury (75 for Ribeiro)
Boissieres

Lemieux takes freebies while he’s in. Biron responsible for spot kicks. Semi W Bs cover the back line in case of red card.

I saw that tactic as a possibility from them, but given the extensive use of Ribeiro (and to a lesser extent Lorenzo) in wide positions in U21 matches, it didn't give it a high probability. It meant our central attack went right at the heart of their defense. Fortunately, Ribeiro generally found the space out wide. Sheperd and Nesta did a good job jumping into the play too.

The first half was pretty dull. Ribeiro was the thrust of our offense, and his service in the first half was very poor. He also preferentially sought out Houston. In the second half it was better - passing was sharper, and Biron saw a little more of the ball.

Defense played very well. Few errors. Sheperd did a pretty good job screening their winger. Verville was sound. Touchette looked very calm and collected in his time in the DM position.

Midfield did a nice job moving the ball around - particularly in the second half. That general formation has a lot of support built into it, and they did a decent job using it. The right OM saw more of the ball then the left OM - Lemieux and Foster didn't have the same impact on the match. Fluet looked sharp in his brief appearance.

Houston did just fine in his debut. Broke a few tackles, got some shots. Was a beautiful (and not entirely unexpected) cross from him for the second goal. Biron was a handful in the second half when he got a little more service.

Castillo Lara didn't have much to do facing just 2 shots, but was forced to make a save.

Tactically I tried a few new things on throw-ins, but they didn't work very well. Their counter-attack strategy had trouble breaking through our dense midfield. Might have been good to have the strikers out one square wider in a few positions - so they could have run past rather then through defenders. Bit tricky - if they get out too wide they have trouble cutting to the net.