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Subject: National Team U21

2025-12-20 11:27:59
We are in a group of death with Germany, Finland and Argentina
2025-12-20 14:41:42
That is a rough group.
All are slightly better than Turkey from our WCQ group, but all are stronger than us last season by about 4-5pts
Good luck haha

One good thing is, they are all basically the same strength, so if they take points off one another, and we get one lucky result, there is hope
2025-12-20 17:09:21
Bosna i Hercegovina U21 - Australia U21 3:1
6 Shots 14
52.7 average mark 47.7

Did everything right and even though red card in 65. Minut, deserved to win... But loss
2025-12-20 17:29:28
How annoying, good effort though mate. At least it was only a friendly
2025-12-21 02:41:51
We will improve and have better chances as weeks go on, hopefully mclaren will be in full force for counter attacks
2025-12-22 13:38:52
Thank you for the votes
2025-12-27 13:28:25
Once again with heavy average rating disadvantage but shot advantage we lose


England U21 - Australia U21 2:0
2 Shots 5
54.1 average mark 48.9
2025-12-31 23:24:25
Happy new year... Lets hope for the new year we get the results we deserve when we actually play well even we underdog in rating
2026-01-03 20:33:53
Australia U21 - Lietuva U21 1:2
6 Shots 8
49.2 average mark 52.9

For once i cant blame luck, but it was though an even match that could go both ways. We dominated 1st half, while they sat on 2nd. Maybe partly cause i took out Maclaren at half to avoid bookings.

Next Saturday wc starts, so time to put our pants on
2026-01-04 09:13:34
Don't put so much pressure on Bernie! We don't want him to withdraw as a reaction for that kind of stress! :D
2026-01-09 18:45:47
Tomorrow (saturday) we Play against Argentina in the u21 world cup... It will be hard as all matches in the group, cause as you can see on average rating we are under marks of last seasons. However we will fight with our heads up and spirits up, and try live up to some of the words received our way in the u21 world cup thread.
(edited)
2026-01-17 12:04:47
Im really sad about how its going this season, but our team is really weak. We are below par on both midfield and defence, and we are getting butchered at the world cup. I now lost 6 matches in row, and i dont know what to do about it when opponents are so much stronger then us. We can only look forward to Asian cup where we again will have strength compared to our opponents.

I will also announce that this will be my last season here. I really enjoyed it, but im getting busy real life and i feel like its time for new eyes on the squad.
(edited)
2026-01-17 14:24:13
Hate to say it, but this team based on ratings is pretty standard for Aus u21 at this stage of the season.

I used to track it (found a graph that went to season 69) and there was only 1 season better than it, a couple around it, and most below 50 rating.

Doing a quick search on seasons since, even within the season it was pretty variable, bur generally, in and around this level.

It's definitely hard going up against teams with such a big rating advantage and trying to get results against them. It's why I always feel sustained success and improvement in a small nation is far more impressive than success with a large nation.

Sometimes you just have to play with what you have, even if it means having to change up the tactics away from what you may otherwise choose.

The results have definitely not been as we would have liked, but these things happen for sure, and we knew this was going to be the group of death from the start too
(edited)
2026-01-17 16:58:52
Well i give you right that the ratings are similar to normal, but its held up by the fact our strikers play at high ratings, and we have like 1 super striker and 6 other good strikers this season , so we can substitute full with every striker taking part of holding the rating up, the other 3 seasons ive been coach the squad was less filled with flaws/more homogenic. This season the secondaries on defs are terrible and the make many mistakes and our midfield look like something teams like new Zealand or similar have. Next season the defs are even worse, right now a 10 pace, 11 def is 1st in u20 db.

But its not why im leaving, i had a great time here, but as you can see on my falling activity level im getting busy real life with wonderful stuff happening.

I hope i can leave with a consecutive trophy in a Asian cup

Cheers
2026-01-17 17:00:41
And i will find easy opponents for the time between wc and Asia cup, so we dont fall too much further in rankings
2026-01-18 02:26:39
It's sad to see you leaving but I totally understand doing so when life gets busy, it's why I had to stand down too

Maybe you walked in to a great set of youths, or maybe a set that suited your tactics/the opposition tactics better, hard to say, but going back through my posts, especially end of season/start of season ones, I have often commented on our strengths or weaknesses.

Some seasons we have an amazing GK with Bril+ keeper and pace, other seasons I played with VG/Excellent keepers. Sometimes I had incredible strikers, other times it was solid/VG.

It's difficult but I also found that the fun part of u21s. Being forced to think of new ways to give it to the large nations despite obvious weaknesses. The good thing is that large nations would often get complacent, because they didn't have to think so much (or they were busy complaining that their defenders aren't Unearthly+ at U21 level and therefore they were unlucky and had a really weak team).

Trust me, I know the frustration, but after being there for 20 seasons, I also understand the reality