Subject: »[U21] Nieuws & Matches

To be honest, France deserved to win.

Ze komen hier heel goed weg, want de eindstand had ook net zo goed andersom kunnen zijn.

Heeeeeeeel goed weg. Nou ja geluk mag af en toe ook.

Not sure about that, but luck played its part today. Van Der Sande is worth a goal a game at least for you guys.

France was quite dangerous at the start of the match, but in the end the Dutch team had more shots. Both tactics were quite weak, but the Dutch tactic was probably the worst. This match could have went either way, but this time it was our turn to get lucky. I disagree with Poey though. We shouldn't have lost here, but getting the win was slightly more than we deserved as well.

Agreed.

We were lucky that the ATT of France has to less tech and speed, otherwise they would have walked through our defence every time. Now our defence could get them on time. First 30 minutes we did not have anything, but suddenly we got two goals out of nothing.

I agree with that, but there is only 1 great striker in our group and you guys have him in Van Der Sande. ;)

There was a lot of fortune around your first two goals but after that you seemed to pick up your performance. Four penalties in 2 matches is lucky, but again its down to your striker to make it hard tackling him, which he does.

You guys are now in pole position to win the group imo.

Well, we didn't have that many defenders left for this week. De Graef, our best defender, is out with an injury, and De Laat was suspended because of his red card against the English side. We had to come up with something, especially because we suspected that the French were going to play with a winger, which they didn't do for a couple of weeks.

So that's why our defence was not 'tight', and those defensive midfielders were playing close to our defence, to make sure that if France in the end would surprise us with asymmetric strikers or three strikers (which they did), we would not be harmed fundamentally. In the end we know that we have four or five strikers that would play in any other team in the group, so we decided to rely on them for this match.

Edit: oh, and the rest is just a matter of quality I guess; we have two top class goalkeepers, and our striker level is really high.
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In the end we know that we have four or five strikers that would play in any other team in the group, so we decided to rely on them for this match.

Stop making me jealous, I lost 1 of our 3 ok strikers this week for 23 days. Could you loan me a couple? ;)

Frances tactic was a little odd, I can see why it caught you guys by suprise. What are your 20 yr olds like? Ours are awful at the moment, especially up front.

Hehe, the FIFA allows switching of nationality once, so I think you should ask Greg to implement it and talk with some of our boys ;)

Well, to be honest, we have some problems over there. Our midfield is much better if in a good form, but we don't have a player like Van De Sande. We have some really worldclass talents in the 19 yr olds, who are likely going to play some matches in the World Cup (if we'll make it of course ;))

Either how, I've been involved in setting up games against England quite some times, and your strongest point up until now has always been tactics. We always think there is a logcial solution to your tactics, but it doesn't end up like this. Poland already saw that in last week's WC match.

Thank you thats nice of you to say that, with our pool of players I am a bit limited so I try to play to the strengths of my team as much as I can while also trying to counter areas of strength of the opposition where I can.

We may have to play a couple of 19 yr olds next season if we make it or not, they are not quite world class though. You will definately make it now as you only have Hungary left of the stronger teams, France and us have 2 tough matches and Hungary still has 3 left. This is why I still feel you'll win the group. We'll need results to go our way and at least a point from both our tough matches I think.

Tactics wise Phil does all of it for the NT and I have been doing all of it for the U21, we are different in our approach really but of course have vastly different players to choose from. I actually felt Phil was very unlucky not to get at least a draw last week, the final ended up being a hammering whereas I had hoped Estonia may be better than they were with all the hype.
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Ik ben inmiddels weer terug uit Bulgraije. Ik ben natuurlijk heel erg blij om te zien dat we hebben gewonnen van Frankrijk. Een grote stap dichterbij de kwalificatie.

Kan er verder nog niks over zeggen want ben nu heel erg moe van de terugreis (moest half 5 's ochtends opstaan). En heb daar sowieso nauwelijks geslapen :P. Ga dus morgen alles bekijken en wellicht nog met wat commentaar komen.

Morgen in ieder geval een vrijwel zekere 3 punten tegen Jamaica. Maar toch een interessante ronde want nummer 3 speelt tegen de nummer 4. Een gelijkspel of overwinning voor Frankrijk zou beide gunstig zijn voor ons.

Taktiek en alles voor morgen heb ik al gefixt hè :P

Zag het :). Super!

Hij is overigens wel lekker aanvallend zoals je wel ziet ;)

Ben benieuwd. Het is een 2-5-3, dus hoop dat we eens dubbele cijfers neer gaan zetten!