Aihe: US Under 21 Team

i didn't apply to run the u19 team... but it looks like... since no one else got any votes that i've just defaulted to continue coaching it?

Not sure...

But i can't apply for it now, sooooo... i guess as long as no one votes for the foreign guy, maybe i'm okay?

maybe?

Nope, You are still in charge because the elections are not over yet. That's all

Can you at least add the players (you can add players during the first week of the season, and the new manager can remove any players he doesn't like in the second week) you have scouted so that the next manager has a base to build off of (since the new manager won't have scouted in time to select the team)? It would also help me for next season.

Crap, if I knew you didn't want to continue with the U19, I would have signed up, Lanky. I'll volunteer next season - I really enjoy the U17 soccer team.

I went through the other U.S. teams and the transfer histories back to season 13 in all active leagues to try to find 20 year olds with 800+ OR and 21 year olds with 1000+ OR that I haven't scouted (I mostly have the players that were on the U19 team at some point scouted). I only found 17 more players to scout. Only 3 of those players have better OR than some player currently added to the U21 roster. I have 11 openings. I usually tend to leave open slots in case a good team folds, but I can probably add every single remotely close to NT-quality player to the roster assuming a few are poorly trained. In fact, 2 of them are mediocre with level 8 training and regeneration facilities, and 3 of them are slightly below the OR threshold I chose. That leaves me with 11 spots for 12 players.

That's too bad. I have a decent crop of younger players coming up who haven't yet been added to the U19 team, but maybe really only 1 that could approach elite.

I only take players from the U21 team.... so it should be fun in 3 seasons to see if anyone was missed

I still have about a week left of scouting before I fill out the remaining open spots roster. I if you have a player in the range I specified earlier, I haven't forgotten about your player - I'm just waiting until I have all the remaining information. With that said, the remaining players I add don't look like they will be immediately step in as starters who need to start getting chemistry now. I did add two of the best players from the list already; one of them happened to play a position that was missing (I was using an offensive pivot with a decent amount of blocking as the defensive pivot until I discovered the decent defensive pivot mentioned above).

The roster and lineup are now finalized.

The United States roster looks strong relative to the other teams in the group, especially the Netherlands and Greece. The U.S. U21 Handball NT is probably a little better than Bosnia and Herzegovina and competitive with Poland for first in the group. I'm fairly confident in advancing. I think the team might even be able to get away with conserving some energy to go into the final round with a stronger team.

In fact, the U.S. U21 Handball NT currently has the second highest team strength in the world (192). Hungary has 197. Some teams might be playing prospects instead of starter since the competitive games haven't started yet. The top ~6 players are all good enough to have been the top player on some of the weaker teams from the past few seasons. One position is particularly weak, but not so bad that I have to use a player with horrible training or facilities or that is out of position. Unlike last season, goaltending is a relative strength.

The lack of depth is still worrisome. Outside of the roster, there's not much available. I doubt there will be many seasons like this one. If a key team has a few bad season for pulling prospects or just doesn't sign them and keep them around, it could significantly affect the depth. Finding players for every position also tends to be a problem.

After losing a game that should have been an easy win and barely winning another game that should have been an easy win to start this season, the United States is now in first place approaching the halfway point (the U.S. has a bye next week while the other teams play their fourth game)with a record of 3-1. The United States will have a good chance at being able to rest for the next round before this round ends.

should i apply for candidacy or are you gonna do it cap?

I'd honestly like to pass it on to someone else, though I'll stick with it if nobody else is interested. I haven't signed up yet because I didn't want to scare away other potential interested candidates.

One manager expressed potential interest in the position, though he was more interested in a youth/senior manager role.

If someone else takes over, I'll help with scouting for the first season and add that person as an assistant for the remainder of this season.

I'd be willing to come on as an assistant, but it's worth my expressing that I am quite a novice when compared to the people here. I just want to help bear the load a little without wrecking the whole thing.

novice reporting in