Subject: National Team

Have to take what we're given at this stage. Anything is doable. We just need Poland to do the business against Slovenia and we'll be in with a shot.

The most pleasing thing was we didn't have an extremely strong 4th seed, so that makes it a bit more comforting.

I don't agree that it's about 2 games only. You need to be sharp because any mistake against the weaker teams will cost the qualification...

The way I look at it, there are 2 games that if we don't win the rest of the games become irrelevant. All games are important, even against Poland if we somehow force into a position where goal difference becomes the key. Without doubt though the 2 most important games are against Slovensko.

Any slip up against those in 4-6th seeds will hurt but won't sink us if we win the 2 against Slovensko. Should we continually slip up that's another thing ;).

With all respect I can't see Hong Kong or Jamaica coming close to beating us and Hayastan we play first up and there would be no way I'd be going easy should I be re-elected for my first match.

Ok, with the elections now out the way it is time to start focussing on the NT, especially when our first qualification game is this Saturday (mark that on your calendar :P) against Hayastan.

With this in mind, I hope to complete the following tasks to start the campaign on a successful note.

-> Update the NTDB to ensure we go into WCQ's with the best available team. A full update hasn't been run since 2009 from memory and so it's time to correct that. By that I'm mainly referring to those over 21 as the U21's have been updated on a regular basis.

Those who have players in the NTDB it would be appreciated if you haven't already done so to update your players as soon as possible, either from oSokker extension, manual updating the player in the NTDB or sending myself a skmail. Old players who have dropped skills are also important, so that avoids the possibility that an older player not as good is taking the spot of a younger guy who's actually better currently.

I will be sending out skmails to players that haven't been updated in a while so don't be surprised if you receive a skmail or two sometime this week.


-> Arrange fixtures for the weeks we require friendlies. Whilst not immediately as important as updating the database, given the mad panic everyone seems to have straight after elections of organising friendlies, I'd like to have this settled by the end of the week. A fixture list will be available via the NT news page as our schedule is completed. At this stage, I don't intend to use many friendlies with 1st XI (particularly not during the WCQ's) so there should be a variety of fixtures which I hope people will enjoy. Should anyone have a request for a team to play or a format, feel free to let me know and I'll see what I can do.


-> Prepare for Hayastan (WCQ - Match 1). This includes the usual things of match preparation, match previews. Should people like to help with suggestions of how we should play or other match related things, you are more than welcome to.


I think they are the main three targets for this week. Obviously I've got more in mind that will be revealed in due time, but I think for the opening week I intend to have completed or as close to as possible the above. Should I find I'm ahead of schedule I'll be sure to inform everyone.

If people think this kind of post would be better used as a separate thread, let me know and I'll shift it there ;). Just knew this thread existed so decided to post it here.



(edited)

Updated all my players. Good idea to get a snapshot of all our players at this stage. Time for a bit of a stocktake.

Progress report:

1) NTDB -> Updated forms/ages and club info. Updated positions. 73 players in the NTDB have "retired" and I will be looking to remove them in the near future.

Of particular note, it saddens me to name the following players who are no longer in the game.

Vince Veart
Jeremy Timpano
Stuart Widera
Tony Nikas
Chris King

All have played major parts for our NT over the years. Each player will be missed :(.

With the update of ages/forms and current clubs, automatic skmails are now ready to be run and I'll get around to that shortly.

2) Fixtures -> Currently I have arranged most of our friendlies for the upcoming season. It has been difficult given my own requirements and the fact that a lot of sides I'd be targeting to play don't want to play us or have already scheduled matches.

In saying that our friendlies so far arranged (will add to a NT media release when completed) include:

Week 4 -> Ukraine
Week 8 -> Philippines
Week 12 -> FREE
Week 15 -> FREE
Week 0 -> New Zealand
Week 1 -> South Korea

I'm hoping to arrange the remaining friendlies by the end of the week as initially planned. Week 8 was a critical friendly as it's either side of our games against Slovakia and I wanted to ensure players are available for both those rounds.

3) WCQ preparation for Hayastan -> Still a work in progress. I'll have more of an idea after training updates tomorrow to see who's available and from there plan our approach.

At least you got the one that matters... ;)

The NZ U21 manager hasn't replied to me :(

I did get an ashes game for week 6 though. We'll probably still be in the world cup though ;)

Veart and Timpano were one of my favourite players in Australia...:(

Yeah that's a pretty good group there that are no longer there. Had it not been for Krayzees refuge home for worn down superstars many more might have joined that list.

In further news, apologies for those that received a lot of skmails from myself. I just went through the NTDB list and went click/send to anything that hasn't been updated in over a month. I've finished that now hopefully. Notifications are not your friend as a NT manager ;).

If you have happened to receive a skmail for a player you no longer own, I'm sorry about that too. I did my best to update the NTDB but it might not update all players automatically. Just let me know if thats the case and I'll track them down manually, rather than by the time saving NTDB generated skmail.

I received 4 though I'm sure only 2 might play a part sometimes down the line...

Yeah, there's a number who probably won't have any chance but before I decide to keep/remove them I'd like to just make sure they still haven't improved much.

Apologies for the lack of match preview, my tournament today went a little longer than anticipated (4-5hrs overtime in fact). Anyway for those concerned the tactic is set and we're ready for Hayastan. I don't think there are too many surprises in our lineup and most were picked on form.

This is an important game in that a good start here is required to ensure that when we take on Slovensko in later weeks that we haven't dropped points somewhere.

I hope the tactic I've gone in with is successful, I'll be disappointed if it's not as I'm up against a new NT manager with minimal experience.

For those keen to watch the game it starts in about 15minutes time.

Some woeful finishing there. I went in with superdivine form strikers hoping that might improve our conversion rate. Appears it didn't.

I thought for the most part we controlled the game. Created a number of chances that we should have scored but failed to do so. We opened up a bit at the back occasionally when our last line of defense got tackled with the ball, or we tried to connect passes between our defenders.

I got pretty much what I expected from them, the winger more in midfield and a single strikeforce with all midfielders crammed in the centre. I even got the same defense setup as I expected with the hole down the middle and so I tried to exploit that which we did on a number of occasions.

I'm reasonably satisfied with the match (obviously would have preferred to see a few more goals to reflect the abundance of golden opportunities. I'm more pleased we won and got the 3 points and that I identified the tactic formation of the opposition rather easily.

Throw in positions didn't quite work as planned but that's something to build upon for next week.

Edit: I forgot to mention that if you have feedback, criticism etc about the match please be sure to let me know :). I'm always interested in hearing other people's opinions.
(edited)

Game against Slovensko is going to be really hard one...