თემა: National Team

The US National Team is back in action today! We've got a bit of a climb to get back into the qualification zone, but I'm not messing around this season. Last season I tried to rest some guys and get some new guys into the action. This season we've got a much more focused core of players with high chemistry. The standings say we're 4 points back, but we have a game in hand, so if we win all four of our games we will qualify, and there's nothing to save energy for if we don't qualify. So there's my goal, and we'll be putting out our best lineup every game to make it happen.

Valadez is hurt today, which is too bad. But I don't think they can handle our side midfielders....Aldridge and Max Mark continue to develop into monsters. And our center defense pairing is solid.

In other news, we've had a few sales in the offseason:

Santo Locklear , CM, went to a top English team, but he won't get regular playing time this season. As a result, his time is going to be limited for the NT since his experience is falling further behind the other players.

Cooper Nichols , SM, went to a level II Hungarian team. Unfortunately, it looks like he's being trained to be a CM now. This is too bad because he's current our top SM sub (and a good one because he's universal, so offers a lot of flexibility), and he's not going to measure up to the rest of our CM's.

Bryan White , CF, went to the manager of the French NT. He'll train well there, and may have a role on the US NT this season.

Jorge Stacy , LD, went to a top Canadian team. I'm not worried about this one.

Scott Lucas , CM, went to a level I Bulgarian team. He's really only a developmental player at this point, so I'm not concerned with this.

I've set out what I think is a good game plan for today. Let's hope our boys can get it done this time!

If you still need a sub for LM/RM then perhaps you should take a look at my guy, Mitch Swan and see if he's useful.

Well, time for another weekly update....

Disappointing tie last week. Same story as last season's Peru game: we controlled the game, had more shots, and just couldn't put enough on goal. That makes our road to qualification significantly tougher. I'll do my best to win out and we'll see what happens.

Another injury this week means that McCready (CF/RF) won't be called up, and Valadez (CM) will stay off the roster to heal up as well. Rudd (RD) is in camp; Woody will serve as an adequate fill-in for him.

I've changed our stadium again, this time to The Crater (tujague's stadium). There's enough seats that we won't lose too much revenue from the change, and the added press boxes will put some pressure on the players to step up their games.

Finally, I mis-spoke last week about Jorge Stacy. It looks like he's being converted from LD to CD. This is unfortunate because our backup options at LD are not fantastic. We've got Randolph Pelletier up and coming, and Len Bunch established with some chemistry, but neither of them is quite up to par with Stacy. There are a few other options that we could explore for the future, too. I think with chemistry already at 100, Stacy will be the best player to finish out the season, and then next season the manager can explore other options.

Speaking of next season, I'll announce now that I don't intend to run for re-election. I think we've done well in the last two seasons in terms of developing players and we have a strong core right now with some interesting younger players developing. But something about my game management style has not transferred well from my own team to the NT, and regardless of the outcome of the next three games, it's time to give somebody else a shot.

Thought I responded to this last week, but clearly not. Swan has been on my radar since last season; his numbers are good for a 19yo. I think Nichols will be good to finish out the next three weeks as LM backup, and then depending on the situation, I'll look at players to fill in for the rest of the season.

Woohoo! Nat team stadium. Nice

willmott, don't beat yourself up over thee NT struggles. This is soccer. Anything can happen unless you have an overwhelming advantage.

sorry bro, must have missed that comment entirely. Thanks for the heads up though.

My bad, I wrote that poorly. The "clearly not" referred to the fact that I failed to respond...it was not to imply that you missed a message or something. Just wanted to clarify that so it didn't sound like I was trying to be a sarcastic jerk!

me neither man. I just haven't read the thread that much so I think I might have missed the comment.

Donald McFarland -> Camp

DONT FORGET to update players--- YOUNG AND OLD

http://nt-soccer.czechppm.cz/usa/

Ian McCormick this Guy is upload today in nt-soccer.czechppm.cz/usa

Don't forget to vote for NT manager. I'd like to lend my support to Runnyonion, who should a fantastic job if given the opportunity.

As for some of the other candidates, I'm not sure why people are giving preferential votes to someone who has never posted in this forum and doesn't have a connection to the USA PPM community.

Ditto. Runnyonion would do very well in this position.

What do you think about my player Randolph Pelletier?

Probably not going to upload players until I get one of my own that's consistently playing at 20-level rating. I have one CD that's pretty close, but otherwise too reliant on foreign talents...