Subject: National Team

We're taking on Singapore this week. We'll be using an U23 side whilst they will be using an U24 side. Will have to do a bit of searching at what we've got in the U23 department during the week.

So for those with U23 players, it might be a good time to update those players into the NTDB if you haven't already been doing so :).

I believe Stewart, Villafane and Libbesson are all up to date.

Stewart's even climbed all the way to average form!

that's a promising sign, hopefully it keeps rising :).

I was a bit worried that he was going to be one of those guys who gets stuck at tragic for seasons for a while there.

yeah, it's pretty frustrating. I've just got Necevski and Paredes up to divine and superdivine form after a season of poor form. They seemed to like playing on the Wednesday instead of the Sunday whilst they were in low form.

Our WCQ group has a few familiar faces from last time. Feel reasonably confident we can get the better of Belarus but they have beaten us before. Crunch games will be between them and ourselves.

Not the best we could have hoped for but not the worst either. Should be manageable. If we can't beat Belarus we don't really deserve to make the World Cup.

For the record, we're in Group H and the teams include:

1. België
2. Australia
3. Belarus
4. República Dominicana
5. Īrān
6. Azərbaycan

The good thing about that draw is Belgium being a major force. Should rely on them to beat Belarus.

We've also played them twice last WCQ so we've got a fair idea of what they're capable of. Same as Republica Dominicana. Iran is a pushover, Azerbaijan shouldn't be too bad either. Goal difference probably means squat with 16 groups though, unless we split points with Belarus.

We're ready for the match tonight against Singapore. We're using U23 (interestingly a lot are coming straight out of the U21's. Positions are dominated somewhat by certain teams but it's the strongest I can put out ignoring those unavailable through injury and considering form too.

Ando
Baveas
Lewis
Leijer
Plesa
Rudnicki
Tarka
Dreger
Burns
Haliti
Foley
Hirons
Zdrilic
Wood

Have all been dropped temporarily to make way for these players.

There will be a mass shake up in the next week or two as I attempt to clean out those who have been sitting there that aren't ever likely to play again. Some big names will go I'm quite sure :).

Pretty good draw - Iran and Azer are fun to play against.

I even don´t know should I complain about NZ group L or not. I think it`s good we got Suomi, will play against them today. But Canada I don´t like at all, Seca is a tough opponent. Also last three teams are pretty good, but we should beat them hopefully.

1. Suomi
2. New Zealand
3. Canada
4. Cymru
5. Paraguay
6. Shqipëria
(edited)

Yeah but whoever drew Canada, Norway, Austria or Portugal were never going to be terribly happy.

Canada are beatable, although with Seca back they will be difficult to beat and he'll know a lot about the NZ roster. I think you've certainly got the players to cause problems though.

Quite unlucky, we've had those kind of draws in the past. Good luck with your campaign anyway.

Well, if nothing unusual happens, then we will meet eachother in Belgie-Australia games :)
(edited)

Their formation looked very TBF to me, not like they are the only team to use it, I just always think TBF when I see that formation.

Some nice damaging balls forward from the "Tribe Line". Unusual place for Villafane, but as it turns out he didn't have a lot of work other than taking free kicks. Subbing Stewart when you did was certainly fortuitous for me (Sorry viv). Libbesson made his trademark ball trap a couple of times, you know the one where he fumbles it into a nearby mid so he can tackle them ;P

How many balls did Muscat get dropped on his head inside the box only to put all-but-the-last over the crossbar?

I subbed Stewart off as somewhat protection given that I had 3 of your midfielders on. Stewart happened to have the lowest form of the bunch and so was selected. Villafane probably could have been pushed to a more offensive position given they used their winger on the same side as our winger.

Still a lot of nice chances that ended up being butchered. Probably a little defensive and could have thrown men further forward to cramp them in their half though.

3-0 a reasonable result, could have easily been about 6 or 7 to 0 but for the finishing.

gotta admit it was quite funny though when muscat and sharpley both headed against the bar in quick succession