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Subject: National Team
We take on Poland tonight in our 2nd last WCQ this season. Unless some sort of magic falls from the sokker gods and we beat Poland and Slovensko fail to take all 3 points against Hong Kong we'll be out of the running for qualification. The 2-1 loss to Slovensko when we were ahead 1-0 and looking pretty good is most likely going to cost us a place as well as failing to put enough in the back of the net against Jamaica (20 as opposed to Slovensko's 41).
In saying that when there is still a slight possibility I'll keep trying as if we can get the chance but it's been a season where we couldn't get our true 1st XI playing together in the matches that count. Again today we've got Villafane on the sidelines, Stewart,Papaluca,Morton,Maras,Gardiner out of form to name a few. When your depth is already tested due to a low user base, having issues with key players that you rely on heavily makes the task even greater.
We've put up a reasonable showing though, we've only lost the 2 qualification games so far.
Tonight I'm hoping to improve upon the 6-0 defeat we suffered against Poland. There were a lot of positives from that game in that we were able to keep them scoreless after approx 20min for a 0-0 back 70min, though the damage was done early as well as picking up a few weaknesses in the tactic we played. In hindsight we probably gave them too much opportunity with the ball and they made us pay.
I think realistically we're not going to beat Poland, so it's just a case of putting up as good a showing as we can.
Suggestions are welcome at the moment, nothing has been finalised as of yet. I'm a little disappointed we can't watch Slovensko's match before ours so as I know whether we have a chance or not but I'm quite confident they'll despatch Hong Kong anyway.
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In saying that when there is still a slight possibility I'll keep trying as if we can get the chance but it's been a season where we couldn't get our true 1st XI playing together in the matches that count. Again today we've got Villafane on the sidelines, Stewart,Papaluca,Morton,Maras,Gardiner out of form to name a few. When your depth is already tested due to a low user base, having issues with key players that you rely on heavily makes the task even greater.
We've put up a reasonable showing though, we've only lost the 2 qualification games so far.
Tonight I'm hoping to improve upon the 6-0 defeat we suffered against Poland. There were a lot of positives from that game in that we were able to keep them scoreless after approx 20min for a 0-0 back 70min, though the damage was done early as well as picking up a few weaknesses in the tactic we played. In hindsight we probably gave them too much opportunity with the ball and they made us pay.
I think realistically we're not going to beat Poland, so it's just a case of putting up as good a showing as we can.
Suggestions are welcome at the moment, nothing has been finalised as of yet. I'm a little disappointed we can't watch Slovensko's match before ours so as I know whether we have a chance or not but I'm quite confident they'll despatch Hong Kong anyway.
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I'm hoping we've got enough cattle available to at least put up a slightly better showing then we did last time where after 20min you could turn the game off. Time will tell.
Well we got blitzed again in the first 20min. Those through balls to their winger (in a striker position) really killed us early. Afterwards it went a lot smoother and we managed to create a number of chances to score. A 5-1 loss is a much better result.
I don't know what it is about me being the NT manager and missing out on qualification due to goal difference. Appears like it's going to happen again after Hong Kong defeated (yep that's right, you heard correctly), Slovensko.
:@.
I'll need to discuss something with you active users come early next week and I'll do so in the Australian Association. I think most will know what I'm going to discuss though.
Currently though, our GD is +18, Slovensko's is +48. I doubt we'll catch that up though.
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I don't know what it is about me being the NT manager and missing out on qualification due to goal difference. Appears like it's going to happen again after Hong Kong defeated (yep that's right, you heard correctly), Slovensko.
:@.
I'll need to discuss something with you active users come early next week and I'll do so in the Australian Association. I think most will know what I'm going to discuss though.
Currently though, our GD is +18, Slovensko's is +48. I doubt we'll catch that up though.
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I can't imagine Australia winning 15:0 and Slovensko losing 15:0. What a shame to get eliminated this way...
And Slovensko coach used lots of youngsters against HK, hence the loss
And Slovensko coach used lots of youngsters against HK, hence the loss
Yeah I know that. I think we can get 10:0, but yeah I find it difficult to imagine us getting much more and I can't see Slovensko getting thrashed by enough unless they get early red cards to their defenders.
We'd probably need to win by 23-24 to have any kind of hope. Those games against Jamaica are likely going to be costly, although regardless of the result it's only 1 goal that's going to sink us in the end. The 2-1 loss to Slovensko where it could easily have been 2-1 to us.
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We'd probably need to win by 23-24 to have any kind of hope. Those games against Jamaica are likely going to be costly, although regardless of the result it's only 1 goal that's going to sink us in the end. The 2-1 loss to Slovensko where it could easily have been 2-1 to us.
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We're ready as far as I can tell for the game in a few hours. I won't be online to watch it live but will certainly watch it before I see results of games. I really don't expect much because we're so far behind the 8 ball it's not funny. A few selections may surprise but hopefully I've got enough firepower to give us as good a chance as possible to end in style.
Losing Kohler early in the game killed us. It forced me to bring back a midfielder and Stewart was the best possibility. That then killed our offense and gave them the possession they required to prevent us generating shots. Otherwise I thought the tactic played well. Thought they'd switch and play the winger on the right but that didn't eventuate and as a result Libbesson had a lot of work to do (more than I was hoping for). How we ended up with 2 men less and they got away with a full XI I'll never know but it pretty much put a halt to any kind of chance we had of rumbling goals in. 2 red cards the other way and we'd have probably scored 15-20.
A 6-2 result in the end, not what I was hoping for but we at least tried and got the win. Doesn't matter much ultimately as Slovensko beat Poland so regardless of the result we got we wouldn't have qualified.
One big positive was that we were able to pump balls through their 5 man defense for our strikers to run onto, a lot more than we usually do. I will look to build on that and see if we can't score more often from that kind of play.
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A 6-2 result in the end, not what I was hoping for but we at least tried and got the win. Doesn't matter much ultimately as Slovensko beat Poland so regardless of the result we got we wouldn't have qualified.
One big positive was that we were able to pump balls through their 5 man defense for our strikers to run onto, a lot more than we usually do. I will look to build on that and see if we can't score more often from that kind of play.
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We're taking on Colombia in an U25 friendly this week. Not exactly sure how strong their U25 side is but I was more concerned with getting a game which we now have.
Taking a brief look at our U25 squad to select from though and I think we've got some quality available to give Colombia a good run for their money.
We're taking on someone who is arguably one of the better tacticians around the sokker world, it will be interesting seeing what they come up with.
I ask now, anybody who does not want their player used, please let me know within the next 10hrs and I will consider it. I realise this is a tight schedule given most of it will occur overnight but I haven't had a lot of choice unfortunately. I will not be available from this time onwards probably right until kickoff so the squad selected will stay if I haven't heard from anyone.
I'm hopeful most players will still be able for selection as depth could be an issue.
Taking a brief look at our U25 squad to select from though and I think we've got some quality available to give Colombia a good run for their money.
We're taking on someone who is arguably one of the better tacticians around the sokker world, it will be interesting seeing what they come up with.
I ask now, anybody who does not want their player used, please let me know within the next 10hrs and I will consider it. I realise this is a tight schedule given most of it will occur overnight but I haven't had a lot of choice unfortunately. I will not be available from this time onwards probably right until kickoff so the squad selected will stay if I haven't heard from anyone.
I'm hopeful most players will still be able for selection as depth could be an issue.
In fact, I will be back well before kickoff because we're playing away, so I'll change that to:
"Anybody who does not want their player used this weekend due to a qualification game on Sunday, please let me know via skmail anytime up until Saturday and I'll see what I can do to avoid using them."
"Anybody who does not want their player used this weekend due to a qualification game on Sunday, please let me know via skmail anytime up until Saturday and I'll see what I can do to avoid using them."
All my lads are available.. although none of them are U25... so I guess none of them are available.
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I'm not sure if U25 means 25 and below or 24 and below.
Anyway if the former please don't use Drum as he's on TL, thanks.
Anyway if the former please don't use Drum as he's on TL, thanks.
It should mean 25 and Under just like the U21 team.
I really on have Huxley that may play, but feel free to use him or Haliti if you want
I really on have Huxley that may play, but feel free to use him or Haliti if you want
Looks like I picked a bad choice of age type ;). The first XI I would have picked have almost all ended up in requests to be rested. Fortunately I've got back in time so I can make those adjustments to satisfy everyone :).