Subject: [NT] Fixtures

Up against Slovenia this week. It is generally an exercise in controlling Egon Adamovic.

Had a pretty significant injury to J Sait this week. A few players whose form is drifting too (Letebe, Mahule). On the bright side, Mabizela's form has improved - he may be able to influence the match some.

A couple of lessons in this match for potential managers. First is that no matter how good an individual tactic is, you've got to switch things up. The nature of the Sokker ME means a clever or lucky (I'm going with clever in this match) throw-in will be exploited repeatedly. Players don't learn from their mistakes. :) South Africa's first 3 goals were off the same throw-in play.

Second is to use red card orders. Normally that back wouldn't have been a serious loss - although the winger gets the corner flag uncontested, because the pass is unobstructed it is usually along the ground, giving the CB time to get over. Since the South African striker cut across the face of goal, this was avoided, and the missing defender was well exploited.

Most of the tactic was focussed on minimizing Adamovic. 3 CBs played deep, so they almost always had a run at him. The WBs were bevelled to block passing lanes to the strikers from the wide mids. The 3 offensive minded South Africa players were loaded to the side of the field away from Adamovic - taking play away from him.

I thought the defense was sloppy last week, but they were great this week. Some nice tackling and good cover up when a tackle was missed. Midfield was solid, and did a good job of moving the ball to the right side. The wingers were both good (Mabs and Khambule swapped at half), tho I still think Mabs is underachieving his tech a bit. Early on I was disappointed with Mapela, who seemed to be wasting opportunities without a shot, but he got better. Mahule had a very nice match despite his form, and Roberts was once again rock solid in goal.

That's my last match in charge. :) Nice to go out on a high note.

All Nt friendlies were arranged this is our time table :

FRIENDLIES FOR NT SOUTH AFRICA

Week 4 - 2009-09-19 - Nigeria
Week 8 - 2009-10-17 - Latvia
Week 12 - 2009-11-14 - Hungary
Week 15- 2009-12-05 - Malasia
Week 0- 2009-12-12 - Rep Dom
Week 1 - 2009-19-12 - Crna Gora

Looks like a good set of matches. A couple of tricky ones and some where we should get some good results.

Indeed , i tried to include a mix , so we can tackle departments aspects in our team , every match has it's own story and that programme is ideal for our squad .

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Malta 1 South Africa 2

A win in an unlucky match for us, i can clearly say we played against the goalkeeper , we were unlucky with the injury of our striker which weakened our attack

Tactically we worked hard , we were very strong in defense me and my tactical advisor Maqoma worked alot on this match and it gave results , we opened the play well , defended well , and our attack was good despite the injury , the only breach of luck for us was their red card and they deserved another in the second penalty because it was a clear goal scoring opportunity ,but that's football


i am Happy we started off with a victory thanks to the brace by the substitute which showed his class Mapela


That's all for today lads feel free to post ideas on how to improve or general comments about the match
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Well done for the 3 points. As a bonus, Turkey and Czech Republic have played to a 1-1 draw. They will both be very tough opponents for us, but it's good to see them take points of each other.

Congrats on the win. :) Pretty harsh to miss all those chances. You'll have to sit Lakay down and give him a talking to. :P

The tactics were very good. You only gave up one decent chance, and generated a ton of your own. Not much more you can ask for - ME has to show you a little love. Aside from Lakay, Khambule was also pretty flat. Normally your lads will do a little better for you.

Congrats on the win.

Nice one. Keep it up!

Thanks all but it's a tandem me and my assisant Maqoma (which is also tactical advisor) and to the staff , without those people we can't work , i invite those who want to work with the national team tasks to contact me immediately

Superb effort today by the NT against probably the strongest team in the group.
Pity we didn't get a point out of it.

Great game! My plan almost worked :)

Great result actually. To run them so close has to be satisfying. Pity we could not hold on for the draw.

awaiting acceptance for friendly..from Nigeria
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