Subject: [NT] - Latvija

Not the nicest of groups for wcq imo. But possible.

I think that the opponents of Latvija aren't the first ones but the 3rd ot 4th. Under this point of view, I think that the extraction has gone quite well and, despite Zhōngguó and Ecuador deserve attention and a good line up, they are affordable. About Magyar... the firsts are always of another category, there are at least 8 points of average evaluation of difference but, with a certain amount of lucky you can make them a bad surprise, as Latvija was able to do against italy last qualifications. I can understand your low profile, probably I would make the same at your place but, if you'll be elected, I invite you to keep the faith. If you have the key players in form, you can try and have some chances.
I have good news, about 3/4 of the database is up to date at the beginning of the last season and almost half to the last days. And after a good job of persuasion, I've obtained the skill level of a key player where his manager didn't want to share his skills to me, until yesterday :). The player is Ričards Sesks, you can see in the previous page of this topic when I noticed this situation.

About the upcoming friendlies, Peru has been busy in the final of the America's cup, so I proposed a friendly to every free NT. I will not use key players or players in the main line up that cannot be substituted with a similar level player, I will use a B team or out of form strong players in the worse case.

Many thanks :)
Yeah, of course the objective is to keep the 2nd place. But e.g. Indonesia (5th seed!) gets 77 marks ... they are just so low because the tactics are shit ... and there's another user who is having votes too :)

I agree with both!
the group is challenging,
respect the hierarchy of rankings, but no one can take to the field relaxed, even hungary.

O.O I gotta admit that I didn't realized of this loose cannon. I did not watched about the last two... Oh sh**... this is a very unlucky strike because with that potential, with a decent line up, they can fight for the second place. I hope that the actual coach has got a good gab in order to get elected again :)

I would prefer a different match to say goodbye but a walkover would prevent injuries, despite I've set up a line up with no regular players. So... we are at the closing credits and a new story is incoming. I leave an up to date database or almost. About me, I have to say thanks to you all, because I come back to the NT environment after several seasons with a little NT to manage but with potential, this means easy to manage alone but with an opportunity to do good things. I hope that the new manager can continue this and, why not, to do better :)

unfortunately they picked a better coach in Indonesia this time :(

First tactics are made
First line up is set

Tomorrow I put the conditional orders and I create a back up tactics :)

First game as 2nd seed is always a hard one, as you face a top 16 nation. In this case it is Hungary, ranked 10.
Some facts (Latvija vs Hungary)
- average value: 2.6M vs 2M (39 vs 40 players in selection)
- minimum value: 1.6M vs 1M (I left out our 22yo in the selection who's in a bot team)
- max value: 4.5M vs 4.4M (excl. GK: 3.4M vs 3.3M)
Both teams start with a new coach. Both coaches did lead another NT team last season (Chile and Malta).

Anyway,
A loss isn't tragic. A draw would be great. A win would be a terrific bonus for this campaign. Especially as we face Indonesia next (who even as 5th seed, is imo almost the same strength as Latvija)

good luck!

Thanks
I'm not a 100% happy with the tactics, but it seems each modification I make is more disappointing :D

Goals galore. But 1 half with red card might have been the drop too many to seize a point.
4-5 loss

Tomorrow at 9 we face Indonesia. Imo ranked way too low ... and possibly the best team to compete with for 2nd place. Overall they have the better defs and mids, but we have more offensive quality ... interesting for sure!

This game was terrible in so many ways ...
- tactics were not on point
- defense was doing terrible in tackles ... As said, their strikers are decent but not world class, yet still they won their dribbles quite often (also resulted in the goal we conceded).
- again a red card early in 2nd half
- where in the first half we could limit most of their actions to long distance shots, we started to suffer in losing the midfield after the red card for our winger. CM had to run more often, leaving gaps and we started to concede too many big chances.
- last week our strikers were efficient ... today it was terrible. Almost all of our 10 shots were 1v1 with the GK but we only scored one. At least 3 should have gone in. If you watch the game, you'll probably understand my frustration on this particular point.

In the end, I believe based on the quality of shots we would have won this game 3 times out of 4. Especially if we kept having Zande as a "unloading" point.
A 1-1 result is not what I hoped for ... and it puts extra pressure on us for the 2nd place. But we still have everything in our own hands.

Next week is a friendly game. I did not arrange any friendlies on purpose. I"ll look for some lower ranked team and play low-form or B squad players.

Not really what I expected. I'm on holiday and had to set the squad from my phone without flash to see tactics. But still... Based on chances we were outplayed. That shouldn't happen. :/

alright, after some struggles, we end the first half of the WCQ with a 1-5 win over China. If Indonesia wins from Ecuador tonight, it means we'll still be within 3 points of 2nd position, despite a quite disappointing 7/15.

Solid win which could be more. And 80 rating... Whut