Asunto: US Senior National Team

Yeah! that makes sense to me. although the only thing im confused about is how you say that the press center can cause you to move out of D2 quicker?

Press center makes your players "play harder." It's the main factor that supplements / adds to a team's advantage in home games.

You'll notice that teams with maxed press centers are very hard to beat when you play them in their arenas.

So logic says, that if you level up your press center. Your team will play better in home games, thus making it harder for you to lose in the playoffs.

I had never heard this concept before, but looking back, it does have merit. Personally, my BIGGEST waste of time and money, was in building any seating less than triple floor multi purpose. Anything less, and you have tear it all down and only recieve half your investment back. Just time and money wasted!! Better to wait a week or two, and build the starter level of TFMP where you can add on without tearing down. Wish I had known this from the beginning.
I have always felt that before you advance to the next level, you should be reasonably sure you will finish in the top 5 of that next level. This approach has yielded the best results for me. Protecting your OR is vital !!
Again, well said.

Oh yeahhhhhhh I forgot about that, it kinda slipped my mind since I pretty much always build them immediately.

Well we are through to the final 16 in what would be the most difficult season for the US Senior National team. Round one was absolutely crazy and round two had 5 difficult teams. But here we are and we could only rest one game. It would be nice to win one game next round and get to the final 8. That would be a great season.

Great job so far and good luck in the playoffs!

and we got smoked.... again

It's one of our best finishes ever in handball as far as I remember; that's certainly nothing to be upset about.

Besides... the U21 and U19 teams continue to do decently, so the Senior Team should remain at least as competitive as it was this year for at least a little while.

So we can still always "look forward to next year."

There are not too many add's and deletes this year. Just 3.

The drops are as follows
1. Rickie Devore who played 71 games (41 games and 30 friendly games) for the National Team. Scored 171 goals and 114 assists in the world championship.
2. Darrell Brecht who played 2 friendly games for the National Team and was needed for injuries last season due to our weak position of Pivot.
3. Luther Brunson who played 50 games (19 games and 31 friendly games) for the National Team.

The adds are as follows
1. Billy Spencer
2. Erwin Copeland
3. Lee Donald

We are going to move Morris Stratton to the starting Attacking Left Back.
We are going to move Cary Ward to the starting Defending Left Back.

That is all the changes this season. There are 3 more good players coming in next season who will be looked at.
We are starting to age on Defending right backs and defending left wings. Our defending piviots will need help in the next 2 to 3 seasons as will our lone attacking right wing.

Just a few tweaks as we will start to fully enjoy players coming up the program who have trained with maximum facilities.

Dexter Stapleton should solve your problems at defensive pivot as soon as next season. I tried to acquire him last season to buff my own team's weakest position and get him some more playing time / exp (his one glaring weakness). I negotiated with his manager to let him go for 100 million and wouldn't you know it, i got priced out of the bidding when he went to market. Oh well, he'll be good anyways (almost 1900 OR by this time next season I'd say), but definitely not as good as if he'd start accumulating some exp.

Other than him, I think David Allen (offensive RW) and Scott Serna (defensive UB) will help in two other areas of weakness you mention. They're both still 19, but they along with John Field will be absolute pillars of my team and the national team for an (in game) decade or more. All three have been getting playing time and have very good exp for their ages (in my opinion). Both Allen and Serna will start every game I can get them in going forward (several of my market sales last year were to clear room for them to play more).

By the time those 3 guys are 22 years old and eligible for the senior team, they'll all be around 1900 OR and 50-55 exp. They have pretty good CL too as Field and Allen dropped to 5/6 CL as 18 year olds, while Serna dropped to that level @ 19.

Outside of the US, keep an eye on Gene Trimble too. He has pretty good CL progression and OR for his age and he's a defensive RB. I can't vouch for his playing time since I sold him last season, but XaviesCrown 's [handball_team=16337] has top notch facilities. He too should be around 1800-1900 OR by the time he's senior team age in 2 seasons too.

Just noticed that you also mentioned defensive LWs.

Phillip Marvin and Crispin Beeman are the ones to watch on that front. While neither has GREAT CL progression (both were 5/6 CL 15 year olds iirc?), they are both fairly high OR for their ages.

Beeman is my starting defensive LW and my only real option at the position after last seasons sales, so his exp should steadily increase going forward and might be a better long term option than Marvin in the grand scheme for that reason.

P.S

If you are needing a decent replacement for offensive pivot in several seasons, Burt Whitney is probably worth adding to your watch list. He's got over 1100 OR at just 18 years old and he's still 6/6 CL at that age.

His AvQ isn't as great as some of the other guys that I've mentioned, but he should still end up in that boarderline 2000 OR range that I keep mentioning.

My current offensive pivot is okay, but I don't love him (pivots have been an ongoing issue for me ever since I decided to make natural pivot Rolland Benedict a back all those seasons ago... that's karma for you).

But anyways... I'll be trying to get Whitney more and more playing time probably starting in the latter half of this season.

P.P.S. Sorry if it seems like I'm just tauting my own players, but i think it's really just because I had a pretty killer recruitment cycle 3-4 seasons ago (guys that are between 18-20 years old now). I seem to have that sort of thing happen every 4-5 seasons or so (my last one included guys like Keenan and Benedict and Lloyd Russ who are all in their mid-late 20s now, and I've had pretty bad luck the last few seasons on the rookie front).

But the many of the guys I mentioned above pretty much carried the U19 team last season or two, and i imagine they'll probably continue to have a similar effect as they age up as well (as most of them have high AvQ and have been blessed with pretty great CL progressions thus far).

I will be glad when we get 10 academies at 15 with 15 training.... Looking at you Cataclysm, San Crispino, Pballas and the tuggers...


Yea you have lucked out with the draft as it shows with your 13 NT players.

Our current crop of 15-17 is rather thin as well. But I think we can weather that storm with a good crop this season and next season. We just need 1 to 2 good pulls a year with 475+ OR and do not end up on teams with horrible training. Which is a curse for USA. Mind you we may not have to worry about this at all with us being under 50 active teams.

SA15 will be my next major expenditure, though I need to wait until I re-sign a few free agents.