Subject: U21s 2 games to go

1. Suomi U21 Points 24 GD + 57
2. Scotland U21 Points 19 GD + 32
3. Österreich U21 Points 16 GD + 42

Thats Finland qualified - well done to westbrom. As suspected this could go down to goal difference.

Austria have moldova next who managed to hold Finland to a 1-0 defeat - who knows maybe they can sneak a draw against Austria. Our next game is against Finland who despite being already qualified have stated they will be playing with their U21s against us and Austria to keep it fair. Im not sure what i would do - keep it fair or get the u20s valuable experience for the upcoming world cup. One thing i can note over this journey is dont underestimate tactical discipline. The difference of our players from the start of this season to now is visibly significant due to their tactical discipline increasing each week(ish).

We all love it - it typically scottish.

Finland - anything from this game and we qualify. If this happens then against Thailand i shall be playing the u20s to get some more exp into them. Finland just posted a 60.4 average rating which is the highest rating in our group so far. Our best was 58.2 and with Darren out injured we aint going to get close to that mark again.

The dreaded and most likely scenario.

We lose against Finland and Austria beat Moldova.

We will then be relying on Finland beating Austria and us beating Thailand by 15(ish). Tho according to the Austrian forums they are through now as they believe they can beat Finland and we stand no chance (no joke thats what their forums seem to be suggesting).

As always the association will be crawling with a massive 2 posts about the u21s ;). We play England in a friendly on Saturday where Barmy_Army is the man picking the team (minus Colson he isnae playing to protect from injury) and my thoughts are now well and truly on Finland.

Play for a draw? Gor for the win? Contain them? Darren is missing - who can replace him? Formation? Wingers?

The dreaded and most likely scenario.

We lose against Finland and Austria beat Moldova.

We will then be relying on Finland beating Austria and us beating Thailand by 15(ish)

Not quite ;)

Lose next week and Austria win we will go into the last day with the same points, we would just need a point from Thailand to qualify should Finland beat Austria.

2 good chances to qualify ourselves anyway next week, anything from the Finland match and we are through or if Moldova can produce a similar performance to yesterday then they could take something off Austria.

I'm still confident :)

Best of Luck rtg.

yup it does lie in our hands - however for some reason the austrians are uber confident that they will beat Finland and we shall not. Time will tell - i have no idea where this confidence is coming from. Maybe its google translate that is letting me down as their confidence seems way out of place in some their posts.

same here rtg mate , i think you will get us through

be funny to hear what the austrians say should we qualify lol

from their posts it will probably be "the best team in the league didnt qualify". The biggest attack on FinalFantasy was ironically their game against Hong Kong last week!!!!

If you manage to win and get through then you've done a great job. Austria have double the teams you do. ;)

In our group if I can beat France again in two weeks then we will go through too, again considering France have nearly 3 times our users and Hungary twice as many I'll be really happy.

Good luck rtg. ;)

Oh and see you next week....U20 match wasn't it?

i would say your through wpd, however if i were in your shoes i would also be talking it down :D. France will be out for revenge big style after you utterly thrashed them last time round.

Oh and see you next week....U20 match wasn't it?

yeah - dont worry were not playing Colson :D

LOL I have a LOT of work to do in finding some decent 20 yr olds, everytime I have played with them we have have lost, and fairly badly too.

I am playing our chances down a bit as I really would not like too much egg on my face. :/

Things could go wrong, but of course I hope they don't, I am hopeful we should be able to pick up a draw at least, I'd still dearly love to win the group, if we can I guess that gives us more chamces of meeting in the finals? Not sure how these things are worked out, but I suspect there is a group stage again to start out?

yup the groups are 4 in size - 3 games i think it is, top 2 go through.
(edited)

We are doomed if we make it. lol

I've just had a look at the groups and even if we lose to Finland Scotland look like certainties to be one of the two best 3rd placed teams.

are there 2 3rd placed teams that go through?

I guess so.

15 groups x 2

There's usually 32 teams in the finals.

Assuming everything is going to work as it does at NT level then i'd think that 2 x 3rd places go through.

yip reading on international it does look the case. As it currently stands Austria do not qualify