Subject: National Team

I don't want to seem pessimistic, but yeah - we should concentrate on getting into the 2nd pot for next quals.


Unfortunately, we had a few seasons of less than satisfactory managers and that knocked us down a lot. I've tried to rebuild it and have closed the gap between the top 32 and ourselves quite significantly. I think we're now within 100pts whereas 1-2 seasons ago we were about 250-300 behind.

Results can be achieved against Schweiz, tough but possible. Realistic goal is 3rd but we managed to knock over a number of sides last season, Turkey, Canada, Scotland, B&H, and drew with Hungary. Tactically we'd need to be good though and have most of our key players available for selection.

Won't be easy, but it's at least possible ;)

@sx
I wanted to finish the schedule yesterday and their coach responed today morning. Next season..:)

Friendly schedule:

week 4 - South Africa, 44th in the rank
week 8 - B team vs India B team, 47th in the rank
week 12 - Bolivia, 50th in the rank
week 0 - Latvija, 41st in the rank
week 1 - O‘zbekiston, 95th in the rank

Finito.
Last game will be played with a under-26 or something like that, or maybe 1st team with a couple of competition players, who knows. :)

Ohhh, or maybe a classic game from let's say 6-7 seasons ago? That would be interesting, I think. I wonder how many of those players are still alive. :p

Some will be as Krayzees Coconuts is kind of a nursing home for old, worn down stars. Just reading some of the names and it's flashbacks of the past.

We're playing the classic NZ game, not Oz'bekistan. :)

Well I'm getting almost ready for the game against Malaysia. It's not going to by my favourite-at-the-moment tactic, I'm saving that one for Italy. :P

Won't be able to watch the game, as I'm in Italy at the moment, returning by car at Friday so I will be at home...right after the game, if everything goes as planned.

Hope for a decent performance, we'll see what my rusty fingers are good for when it goes to tactics nowadays :p

is it me or is the ntdb down?

Its been down all day

it's been having issues the past few weeks unfortunately.

Yup. I must make an excell sheet when it's up again to be sure I won't have a nasty surprise next time...

NTDB back up. Hopefully forever :p

Malaysia seems to be much stronger than I though it is. They have better strikers than us, similar midfield and similar defenders, basing on the value. The game might go both ways, it's hard to predict who's going to win.

What is certain though, is that loss in game against Malaysia, or even a draw, will make it impossible to qualify to World Cup.

Going to tweak the tactic a bit, we will see how it works in the game. Going to be pretty damn difficult.

Malaysias midfield from memory is not as good as ours. I'd argue their strikers might be a touch better but we're still a better team. Whilst it's not a gimmie, it's still a game we should win.

Definitely. The central midfield of Australia is better, their main striker seems better but on the other hand our 2nd is better than theirs.

Should be a win and I hope it will be, otherwise I will be disappointed.

As I said, our midfield and defense is superior to theirs :). Still 8 from 13, talk about great efficiency.

8-2 is an outstanding start to the campaign. Keep up the good work :). I've got a few small issues about the tactic though that I'll mention via skmail for you to look out for in future matches when it's going to hurt more.

Nice result straight out of the box.
That wont go unnoticed!