Tema: US Under 21 Team

The next two games are against the two weakest teams in the division. The United States should win both. That should be enough to clinch the playoffs unless the round ends with a 5 way tie.

I'm more concerned about securing a good seed though. The next two games shouldn't affect the United States' seed, however, the win against Finland will.

It looks like the Czech Republic is beatable and Romania should have a minor disadvantage.

Overall, only Argentina, Slovakia, Croatia, and Hungary (in particular) are notably stronger than the United States U21 NT.

The United States lost a point it needed to win in a draw against Switzerland today. Upsets do happen. Hopefully one will happen in the United States' favor in the future. Even so, the United States is in second place after two games. I'm still confident the team will make the playoffs.

In other games, the Czech Republic beat Romania to take 1st, and Finland beat the United Kingdom.

Tomorrow the United States plays the United Kingdom, Romania plays Switzerland, and the Czech Republic plays Finland.

Did not expect the results that occurred--and from more than one game!

Well that did not go the way we planned. There's always another year, though!

It's always upsetting when it doesn't work out, but that's the nature of national team competitions. Sometimes really strong teams start off winning and upsetting better teams only to falter and get upset in turn at the last minute. Sometimes really bad teams that have no business remaining active make the playoffs. Last season's U18 hockey NT that was focused primarily on building chemistry (I purposely tanked in the first two games of the first round to save energy for the next round) for this season only to make the qualifying round instead of the relegation round comes to mind. An exhausted and weak Portugese U18 NT once won the the Championship in the top division.

In any case, I'm disappointed but hope the team will fare well in the future.

Next season's U21 NT still needs an offensive pivot. Anyone with one scouted that is over 1,000 OR should contact reverist with a link.

Anyone? Bueller? lol. I am really looking forward to this upcoming season!

Here's to a new season!

Check out our game against China today! It's a qualification match and I've thrown in a tiny tweak or so to see what happens.

I...failed to notice China has only one player. Well, maybe the tactics will be fun against another team.

Nice win (:

Ha! Everyone's getting two Ws out of China U21 this season.

Beat Finland in a close qualification game, 25-23. Tried out basic settings against Finland as I really wasn't sure what to expect. 2-0 start, though, so we're on the right track!

Congrats!