Asunto: Senior Canada National Team

Great job!

And why not finish the prelims with a 5-1 thrashing of the Serbs?!? Home was player of the game, making 37 of 38 stops. Both goalies have put on a clinic so far!

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but even with a 0-3 run in the Qualifiers we would still reach the elimination round with the 6 points we'll carry over. Obviously at this point going 6-0 doesn't seem like an insane expectation, but it's still a good comfort to know that every win next round is just a bonus.

Great job! If we have clinched, keep our energy consumption to a minimum. Be it by reducing importance or rotating a few players temporarily into the lineup.

Yup. Played N/H/H against Serbia with backup Home in net today. Figured Serbia was probably the team to go through so wasn't going to completely throw that game, but had set it up so that even if we were down a couple goals after the second I was going to drop to VL (I had it so that any lead would bump to H either period).

Looks like we will need to get 1 more win to clinch a spot for sure, though we're obviously and clearly in the diver's seat now. Hungary looks beatable (they're not as talented as Germany from what I can tell), but can't take anything for granted. If we do win against them or Latvia, I'll do some subs (maybe even play Zabek) and play N/L/VL (or some combo thereof) for the rest of the qualifying round.

Honestly didn't expect to win more than 1 game, in all honesty. I guess I'm doing something right.

Well, guess we just crashed back to Earth. 2-0 loss with an EN. Entirely outplayed the Hungarians, but just got beat by a better goalie.

Latvia is up next. A win guarantees us a playoff round spot, as the Czechs and Serbs play each other tomorrow, meaning at best either Serbia gets 9 points and the Czechs get 7 or the Czechs get 10 and Serbia gets 6, meaning all teams with 9 points or more will finish top-4.

Although Latvia has just an OT win against the Czechs and a regulation win against the relegation-round Spain, they're playing what appears to be largely random tactics. I think I've got a good guess on what they'll play tomorrow, but it's still always a crapshoot. Would really like to give the guys a rest against the Czechs on Thursday.

Man, you are doing GREAT so far!! I only signed to elections, because you hadn't yet. As much as I love the thought of having an elections race, (which would be awesome) we'll have one next year. . Just by making the qualifying round, and escaping relegatiom games, (which is way harder than most realize) gets you my vote of support for another season. Bring me on as assistant, and I can help with input on up and coming players. I now tip my hat and bow out of the race for next season.

Bring home the GOLD!!!! GO CANADA GO!!!

Honourable move. Run for U20, we need a strong candidate there.

Also, he isn't a shoe-in for senior... there is a I.1 manager running who could get votes simply because he has a team in the higher league.

Indeed. Since I doubt I'll beat Sangsues, even if my run of success continues, I'm actually probably going to drop out and shoot for U20 if it still looks winnable. The DIII guy running for that spot is also the U20 soccer GM and hasn't done anything since taking over from me there. Not only are they still running my tactics from my last game but he hasn't even scheduled friendlies for the next 2 weeks.

Stick in senior, you've done a good job. Remind me when voting opens and I'll ask people to support you - despite your name (leafs...)

If Skip signs up for U20, I'll stick around on the senior squad.

3-2 shootout win combined with some good out-of-town results mean we will play a quarterfinal match! By virtue of who is playing who tomorrow (with Serbia and Russia playing, someone will wind up with less than the 8 points we have right now), we've clinched at worst 4th spot!

Will rest our first line guys and give Home the start tomorrow. The Czechs will probably have their way with us, but since I'm not sure if there's a good matchup against anyone in Group 2, it won't matter much anyway.

I credit the win with the first intermission team talk you gave. Really woke them up given the Latvian domination in the first half

Yup. Clearly they were playing too much run-and-gun. Needed to sit back and wait for their chances a bit more.

Definitely owe a lot to Craig's performance, too. Shut the door again after a tough loss in giving up only 1 goal against Hungary.

With a 2-0 (expected) loss to the Czechs, a 2-1 Russia win and a 1-0 Latvian upset over Serbia, we'll finish 3rd and face either whoever loses in the Slovakia-Finland game or, if it doesn't go into OT, the winner of France-Denmark. As noted yesterday, none of those are a particularly good matchup, though Denmark has the lowest team rating, for whatever that's worth (not much so far, for the record).

Hopefully giving the Craig and the top line a rest works out well. Looks like everyone else is playing VH today.

Our tournament comes to an end with us blowing a 2-0 second period lead and suffering a 4-2 loss. Rowan Craig had a horrific showing while the French goalie stole the show.

Seems like a common theme at this level: the team with the most shots seems to constantly lose.

Still mulling over whether I should go for the U20 or senior management position, since it looks like Skip isn't going to sign up. I'll make a decision tomorrow night.

I assume there are no friendlies to be offered, so we won't play any games until season 25 begins.

Take U20. I'm not running again.