Subject: [NT] Friendly vs Australia

For this weeks friendly against Australia, we've agreed to use our 2nd XI, resting the first team for the WC qualifiers that follow.

Anyone who has players on the fringes of the NT should send me updates, or update the NT database asap.

I'll also contact managers by sk-mail about players that haven't been updated for a while.

My plan will be to rest the players likely to play against Germany in the next game.
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Ok, here's what I currrently consider my starting XI (actually 12), current form taken into account.

Keeper: Lathan
Defence: Mabotsa, Baloyi, Rodrigues, Goliath
Midfield: Lekhuleng, Mabizela, Shongwe, Chacho
Attack: Behr, Khanyile/Juwayeyi

Those players are being rested this week, so the likely starting lineup will be:

Keeper: Hartley (Skosana)
Defence: Permall, Yohane, Du Plessis, Khan (Mhlanga, Mulekelayi)
Midfield: Makhanya, Westerhof, Madigage, Khambule (Akkad)
Attack: Lakay, Permall (Mugeyi)

Midfield
In midfield, we have nothing beyond the top eight and of those only Khambule is still young enough to improve much with training. The players we've got have a couple of seasons left in them, but we need some talented youngsters to start coming through both in central midfield and on the wings.

Attack
Our strike force looks promising. Of the six players used, the eldest is Behr at 25. Mugeyi (24) gets a call up but he isn't likely to get many games as the others are younger and being trained plus we have some youngsters still working their way up.
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Keepers
Beyond Lathan (28), we're in trouble. We have four keepers that are more or less equal in ability (Zwane, Hartley, Skosana and Wuest) but none are being trained in keeping and none are good enough.

Defence
We've got a fair amount of depth here, though I would like the standard to be raised a couple of notches. I've called up Khan for this match, but he should soon be surpassed by one of the group of youngsters that fall outside the top 8.

I will one day just be a farm team for keepers for the NT.

I could even start next season if good trainees come through

Well, that was an interesting game, both enjoyable and frustrating to watch. A number of times I found myself willing our strikers to shoot, but they didn't listen.

When Madigage went off injured in the 21st minute, I thought we were in trouble. Akkad is seriously lacking in pace and I was concerned about how well he would fill in. When Makhanya went off injured in the 75th minute, it meant that we had a defender come on as our attacking midfielder. Things changed in our favour in the 79th minute when Australia lost a player through injury after having already used all their subs. It's interesting to note that all three players were injured without another player anywhere near them. :(

In all, I'm happy with the 2-2 result. Australia edged us in possession 52-48, territory 55-45, and shots 11-7. They had solid shooting and passing to our good, but we edged them excellent to very good in defence.

In terms of marks, Australia had 4 x 60's 7 x 50's 3 x 40's while we had 8 x 50's 2 x 40's 2 x 30's. They clearly had the advantage overall and our boys did well to draw.

Both teams wasted good chances and the result could easily have been different.
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about Skosana ..
His pace will be Brilliant Magical at the end of the season , and maybe i will train keeping once ... But normally not :(


His pace makes a lot good :P

I saw a good match :) even considering you were facing stronger players, south african players created a lot of danger for australian keeper, and as you correctly said "if only strikers had shot more..."
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