თემა: US Under 21 Team

*I'd ultimately go with Raymond

Albert Hudson is on the market, if anyone wants to bring him back to the US.

I've sent out 3 challenges for each exhibition slot and set a new home stadium.

I'm generally going to look for 2 players at each position, one offensive specialist and one defensive specialist. I might consider dual-specialists if there are any that are especially talented and comparable to the best specialist. It depends on what the talent pool looks like. If there are a lot of fast dual-specialists, maybe a fast break oriented lineup would work best. Beyond that, I would add backups with a heavy preference for 20 year olds.

I have the majority of players that have played for any U.S. national handball team scouted in addition to most of the 20-21 year old players posted in the U19 thread.

With all that said, after skimming through the other U21 national handball teams current rosters, there are a lot of teams with a lot more players with 1400+ OR. Unless I add a substantial amount of talent, then I am not too optimistic about the team's chances. The team has never advanced to the second round of the playoffs and is usually blown out in the first round.

I've had an idea for a strategy that I've never tried in hockey because it would likely result in demoting and require the team to immediately promote again the following season to capitalize. Luck plays too much of a factor to be guaranteed to return to the top division. In handball however, there is only one division. A bad performance only results in a lower ranking which increases the probability of having a more difficult division.

***My idea is to basically tank for a season to develop the chemistry of the 20 year olds. Right now, most of the players on the team have negligible chemistry. In addition to making the team stronger in season 14, it would in turn allow for a head start in developing of next season's 20 year olds (though there are fewer exhibition games in handball). The 20 year olds would also get more training and experience bonuses.

If this season's team is substantially stronger than next season's team, I would suggest waiting for a future season with a relatively weak talent pool. If that is not the case, I am heavily leaning towards trying this strategy. In any case, I would keep any players that will be especially important to the senior team in the near future at least on the bench.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Also, anyone interested in being an assistant should send me a message.

I set up a preliminary lineup based on the players I had scouted. It is subject to change as I scout more players. I chose it based on best player available (taking into acount qualityies, CL, age, and facilities too). I ended up with 7 20 year olds in the starting lineup.

Goaltenders:
Starter: Erwin Copeland
Backup: Marcus Bruneau
3rd String: Jordy Duarte
4th String: Matt Roe

Erwin Copeland is the best by a little according to my metrics, has the best chance to improve, and is only 20. Matt Roe is third, but Jordy Duarte will catch up due to CL. Jordy Duarte is close enough to be backup if I go for more of a youth movement. Since the goaltenders are all fairly close in ability, I will likely switch them around to counter energy loss, especially if I don't pursue a youth movement. Though I'm not sure that I need a 4th goaltender, I don't have any other alternatives scouted, so Matt Roe would end up back on the team in case of injuries.


Pivots:
Offensive:
Starter: Darrell Brecht
Backup: Billy Spencer

Billy Spencer is a little bit behind Branham (formerly from the Doppelgangers) and Vandyke (Cold Mountain Strikes), but Billy Spencer has better CL, age, and facilities. The other 20 year olds with some offense I have scouted are both dual-specialists.

Defensive:
Starter: Stephen Larson
Backup: Marcel Richey
Atwood (Cold Mountain Strikes) is very close to Stephen Larson . I like Stephen Larson 's greater focus on defense in terms of how he will look towards the end of the season. In terms of dual specialists, Marcel Richey or Brandon Roosevelt are more balanced. I prefer a 20 year old as the backup, but I would add Atwood in case of an injury to the starter. I would use Brandon Roosevelt if I wanted a dual-specialist, but Marcel Richey
dedicates more to defense/less to offense and has slightly better EQ. I probably don't need both, but I'll leave them both on the roster unless I need more space in the next week.


Wings:
Offensive:
L: Lee Donald
R: Leslie Carlson

There were only 2 other alternatives. Luke Walker is not as good and is now on a team with horrible facilities. Joel McIntyre is not as good. Both starters are 20 year olds. Mcintyre could be an injury call up. I might just add him if I don't find anyone better.

Defensive:
L: Clay Chase
R: Tad Price

Tad Price is a much better specialist than Delong and likely has more growth potential, though Delong is otherwise the player with the third highest OR on the team at this time. I suppose Delong is useful as an insurance policy though he might not play too much. Clay Chase has horrible facilities, though I don't see any better alternatives. Logan Potter is slightly worse with slightly better (but still bad) facilities, but he is a year older.


Backs:
Alternatives includes Derrick Hill (bad facilities), Ryan Chapin (bad facilities), Deyon Forrest (slightly weaker facilities and heavy dual-specialist with a little too much in some areas and too little in others), and Peter Rodriguez (excluding the LB, the alternatives are a little better and in one case younger). Rodriguez and Forrest could be injury call ups.

Offensive:
L: Michael Capps
C: Steve Dashner
R: Ignacio Bittner

Defensive:
L: Danny Newman
C: Clifton Monroe
R: Benjamin Lewis

I'm surprised Rochester (a D2 team) got the home stadium for the U21 team. Just curious how we got it?

Excluding the arenas already in use by the other national teams, you had one of the highest amount of accessories among active teams with 20,000 seat arenas. I also wanted to try to give it to a team that hasn't had as many players playing for a U.S. NT.

Good deal. Thanks!

After going through the other rosters and team strengths, the United States has a weak team this season. I'm going to go ahead and focus on developing the chemistry, experience, and training of the best 20 year olds for a more serious run next season. The United States could probably beat Greece for 4th and then sneak into 3rd on luck, but ultimately the lack of talent is going to fail in the next round or the playoffs.

I will leave the few high quality 21 year olds on the bench to gain experience for the senior team. Of the 5 21 year olds over 1300, 1 is just over 1300, and one is redundant.

All games including exhibitions will be played on very high this season.

I've scouted all players (current ages 20-21) that have played for the U19 team in addition to players (current ages 20-21) that were considered for the U19 team. I will be going through all of the rosters and transfer lists of current and dead teams since season 8. I don't expect to find much more, but there's always the chance that a mediocre U19 player has developed into a good U21 player due to having a higher level of facilities.

I am going to work on updating the roster today, so don't panic if I haven't yet added your promising player(s), especially 20 year olds. With that said, my scouting focused around p[layers from the U19 NT, so scouting information for players that missed the cut for the U19 NT is welcome (in some cases, former NT players could have ended up on bad teams and fallen behind).

A reminder that last season was focused on developing the chemistry, experience, and training of the current 21 year olds. I have a full roster of 21 year olds with decent chemistry, though I imagine there will be an elite 20 year old or two that will deserve to start. Unfortunately, the chemistry does seem to drop a little between seasons, but the team still has a decent head start on top of a solid roster.

Applicants for the assistant position are encouraged to send me a message, especially managers that would like to consider taking over in the future.

The lineup is now finalized.

hopefully you're not thinking about quitting handball altogether lol. The U.S. is better for having you as managing, even if you don't want to do it for the national team anymore.

Jesus... some of those 20 year olds are darn good.

Yea its a good crop coming up. Unlike the past year

I intend to continue playing all 4 sports as long as PPM keeps its servers running. I just don't like to monopolize multiple national teams, and I intend to continue with the U18 hockey team over any other NT. I also don't have the time any more to run 2 NT's that require a lot of time scouting. I guess the U21 NT in particular doesn't need too much scouting, though I really didn't scout much beyond U19 NT players/candidates last season.

I picked up the team since nobody else was running for last season. I also wanted to try tanking for a season (when the team was relatively weak) to build chemistry for this season.

If someone relatively experienced and active wants to run, I'll step aside. If not, I'll run again to ensure the team remains functional.

Between the top 20 year olds and the 21 year olds that have a strong head start with chemistry, especially in goal, this team looks promising. I have Stapleton, Mercado, Cambridge, Mckenzie, and Pinson starting this season. McQueen is also very talented but blocked by strong depth this season.

The one area of weakness is the defensive wings. I have one starter with horrible facilities and another that is more of a two-way player. All the other options are mediocre ~1100 OR players.

Anyone with a good ~1100+ OR 20 year old or 21 year old defensive wing not currently on the team should contact me with scouting information.