Subject: [NT] Fixtures

Here are the seasons fixtures with ranking and points, starting in 51st (1283).

Week 2 - Slovenija Won 3-1 49th (1328)
Week 3 - Honduras Won 7-0 49th (1359)
Week 4 - Island Lost 0-1 51st (1320)
Week 5 - Australia Lost 1-4 51st (1290)
Week 6 - Hellas Won 3-1 51st (1320)
Week 7 - Guatemala Won 4-0 51st (1350)
Week 8 - Shqiperia Won 6-0 48th (1377)
Week 9 - Belarus Lost 1-3 49th (1354)
Week 10 - New Zealand Lost 0-4 49th (1326)
Week 11 - Malaysia Won 1-0 48th (1343)
Week 12 - USA Lost 0-4 47th (1323)
Week 13 - Ukraine (vs our U23) Won 1-0 47th (1340)
Week 14 - Ghana (vs our U21) Won 11-0 47th (1382)
Week 15 - Moldova (U21 match) Won 3-0 44th (1420)
Week 0 - Latvija (our B team) Won 2-0 45th (1442)
Week 1 - Cymru (B teams) Lost 1-2
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Updated results including week 7.

Updated results including week 11.

Summary of my 4 seasons in charge

1st Season
Won 6 - Drew 3 - Lost 7 - Scored 24 - Conceded 42

My first season was a tough one, jumping straight into WC Qualifying and a thrashing at the hands of Chile. This was a very poor result as, on paper, we were possibly even marginally stronger than them. We failed to qualify, finishing well behind Espana, Slovensko and Chile in 4th place, ahead of Malaysia and Ecuador.

Besides the Chile match, other poor results were the draws against Malaysia (we totally dominated but drew 3-3) and Andorra (we again had the better of the match but only managed 1-1) and the loss to Eesti (we edged the shots but lost 2-3).

2nd Season
Won 4 - Drew 2 - Lost 10 - Scored 24 - Conceded 45

Having missed out on the WC, we entered the Mini World Cup. According to rankings, we were expected to win our group and eventually lose to Austria in the quarter-finals.

As it turned out, another bad result against Malaysia (we controlled the match but lost 1-3) meant that we scraped through our group in second place, level on points with Slovenija and Malaysia but eventually did lose in the quarterfinals as expected. We were probably equally matched but Uruguay created more chances and won 2-1, thanks to a late goal.

We closed off the season with another poor result when dominating against Wales and having to settle for a 1-1 draw. We did manage to fluke a 1-1 draw with Portugal early in the season when we only had 1 shot to their 12.

Thanks to that result and a walkover against Hong Kong, we caused a surprise and qualified for the U21 World Cup, sneaking through as one of the 3rd place qualifiers, level on points with Portugal in 2nd and behind Brazil. We had no chance in the U21 WC itself, losing soundly to Brazil, Bosnia and the Czechs.
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3rd Season
Won 5 - Drew 4 - Lost 7 - Scored 21 - Conceded 45

WC Qualifying wasn't kind to us this time as, due to the seeding system and starting points of new nations, we had no chance of qualifying from our group that included Poland and Germany. A good result against Srbija in our opening game (they were marginal favourites in an even game that we won 2-1), saw us end the group in 3rd place but that still wasn't good enough. We dropped 2 points against Nigeria (totally dominated but ended goalless) but even a win there wouldn't have made a difference.

Other poor results included a 1-1 draw with Japan (we were stronger and created double the number of shots) and a 1-3 loss to Uruguay (on paper we were stronger but they outplayed us. On the plus side, we scored a credible 2-2 draw with Australia.

4th season (current)
Won 10 - Drew 0 - Lost 6 - Scored 44 - Conceded 20

Results wise, this is my best season to date. That's largely due to my decision to skip the U21 WC, and arrange friendlies instead.

Our Mini World Cup campaign this time was disappointing, owing to an unexpected loss against Island (14 shots to 4 but lost 0-1). That result saw us finish 3rd with Australia on top.

Our result against Belarus could've been better (quite evenly matched but lost 1-3) while the rest of the results have gone much as expected. Finished off the season with a poor result in the B team friendly against Wales. Tried different tactics and my defensive positioning was awful.

Despite producing my best season in terms of number of wins, progress up the ranking table has been very slow and we're not going to make the 3rd basket for the WC draw if the format stays the same. We have also scored more goals, and have a better defensive record than in my previous 3 seasons, but that's largely due to the level of opposition faced.
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Nice update on the seasons that has passed hell didnt know it was that manny :)

We've had a cancellation for our friendly this week, so I've sent out a bunch of invitations. Hopefully someone still needs/wants a game.

EDIT: Got a match with Ghana. African derby. :)
We'll be using our U21's against their full NT. The youngsters get their chance again next week as well.
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They will crush Ghana.

that is nice to see the youngster again :)

lets see what happens

I believe that our U21 team will be stronger on paper than Ghana's NT. Still, converting that into goals is another story, as we saw with the 1-0 win last week after dominating the match and the only goal coming from a free kick.

Quite a few positions are very difficult to decide for this match. We've got another U21 match next week, so if your player doesn't play this week, send me a skills update and maybe he can play against Belarus.

I expect to be giving new caps to four players this week: Joseph Sait in attack, Sibonelo Mlwane in midfield, Rudolph Fredericks and Kanku Sait in defence.
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hmm interesting will follow it closely and watch the new Sait brothers :)

great match and great score, but Ghana tactic was really very bad.

Thanks. Very tough for Ghana. Both the manager and the country are quite new in sokker. Very few decent players to choose from, it looks like. I expected our youngsters to be too strong for them, but that score did surprise me.

It was indeed a very weak tactic from Ghana. Someone should explain her ( yes, it's a girl ! ) how to make tactics...

For me, the score was not at all a surprise...