Asunto: National Team

Thanks everyone-- As soon as I send a few feelers for NT asst i will inform you what our gameplan will be this year.

In the mean time I will be setting up a Facebook page for the Soccer (Do we want one for Hockey and just combine it?)

The page will be useful to INVITE ONLY and we can discuss tactics without others observing.

Any input is requested.

PLEASE UPLOAD any prospects.
http://nt-soccer.czechppm.cz/usa/

Congrats on winning the election. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

belated congratz to runnyonion:

Just to put my two pennies worth into the discussion:

Friendlies should *never* be the focus of a ranking game, especially if the focus of the game is qualifying for the World Cup. Do what you want with the energies, but if you're hedging bets on increasing the ranks through friendlies, you're playing a very slow game.

The focus should be on the qualifiers, which will be pitting the US against the Dutch (a tough game at a 40000-capacity stadium [half a stadium, as fortunately the other half is under construction]), the Brazilians (at home), Bulgaria (a tougher game at a 80K stadium, fully-loaded), Kazakhstan (away at a 60K hollow-shell), Indonesia (at home), Chinese Taipei (away at a well-loaded 39K stadium), and Norway (at home).

At the moment, the USA is ranked fourth in terms of team ability [which, to me, is more important than team rankings, since the team ability is a reflection of the player quality on the squad], and given the strength of players present in the other countries (namely Chinese Taipei and Norway), it's imperative that we approach those matches with significantly more importance and dedication. To me, friendlies are an opportunity to see which players perform best at which positions. Given the NT apparently has a different structure, there's also the opportunity to build team chemistry and experience. If we win, it's a bonus. Otherwise, it's another lesson learned (hopefully).



As for prospects, it's been fairly well documented that divII doesn't have the facilities to raise up HQ youth players (trying to, at least...).

And I'd love to participate in FB discussions, but alas, I don't have FB.

Best of luck with the team selections.

BTW, I should mention this before someone rails me on it, the "fourth" team ability ranking is based on the Qualifying Group. And yes, I do know that there's another season worth of qualification with the reverse fixtures.

Obviously competitive, qualifying and world cup is more important than friendlies.

I Just dont understand what is the big deal to set low instead of very low, for example, when it will not even cost 1 full energy point!!!

I am no suggestion, and doubt anyone else, to play Very Hard or Hard. At the expense of ONE energy point we can increase our ranking.

Also makes me wonder if ranking has influence on other things as better chance to win competitive matches, find better players on academy or whatever.

As far as playing better on each position, it can easily be done on their teams on their friendly games instead of national team.

Congrats to bulls4ever for being the NT ASST for Soccer. I chose him because of his enthusiasm and job background. He claims to be a software engineer. I have asked him to help build an excel sheet or something to help record opponents stats on a regular basis similar to the database for american players.

Once I finish the facebook page any who are interested can join and discuss tactics. I wish there was a forum just for US managers here so we dont have to do so much on other sites.

Switched the Team Stadium to The Beer Heaven with FC Corona. Every Americans favorite stadium where the beer flows from the top of the stadium down rivers that lead down the aisles. Yummy.

Fool! The NT is undefeated in The Crater!

But now there will be BEER to celebrate the wins...

Also I think I am liking Mcready over his competition for SF with his high heading skills.

I am surprised by the LOW PASSING AQ's of our forwards. Can we please increase our PASSING qualities? No one is above 70.

I take that back. No one is above 81. Ricky and vincent are have the highest with 80 passing but I would only start Ricki due to a higher shooting AQ.

There will be no beer served at The Crater in protest of this awful decision.


And McCready is not an SF. willmott tried to force him into this role when he was NT manager. I don't think it was working. He doesn't have the Passing. Although I have been training up his Speed this off-season.

I think it comes down to how you define success for the team.

Winning friendlies means more ranking which means potentially being in a better (i.e. higher ranking) pot for the qualification rounds and potentially qualifying for stronger tournaments in the off-years (i.e. years without a World Cup). Those are what ranking affects, specifically which group of 8 or 16 we rank in.

I think there's some similarities between this and college basketball. Early-season rankings are affected by previous season performance and slightly by pre-season games. A better ranking can mean a better seed in (or qualifying for) the NCAA tournament.

To me, being a top-xx team heading into the tournament is not the goal. The goal is to make it into the tournament and then get as far as you can in the tournament.

What are the negatives of playing increased intensity in the friendly matches? There's the slight energy loss (1% is still a negative). Other NTs may start playing higher intensity against us in friendly matches, essentially wiping out the ranking point advantage we would get (especially if there are posts on this forum stating that we're going to play at a certain intensity). The worst case would be where other NTs refuse to schedule us for friendlies (NT friendlies are also based on challenges). The NT friendly calendars fill up quickly and there are an odd number of NTs.

Many of us that have been playing this game for years have the mentality that playing anything other than very low intensity in a friendly match is inappropriate. If I play a friendly against a team and they play normal or higher intensity (and I notice), then I'll cancel any future friendlies I have with that team. That applies to both hockey and soccer. I can assure you that I'm not the only manager who thinks like that.

I have to admit I'm curious why you don't play your friendly matches at low/normal intensity, but push for the NT to do so.

I do think your enthusiasm will help the NT, especially if you continue to be active on the forums. I believe listening and interacting with the community are key elements of both the NT manager and assistant NT manager roles.