PowerPlay Magazine

     Team Canada football (get used to it. I call it by it's real name). In this country we have a lot of ambition for our national team. We have many managers who have been very blessed with some of the top players in the world. We had a good number of managers who started right at launch building their facilities and players just for our future NT. We have a very strong team. But last season (*also the first season with the nation team) was considered by most a bust. It happens. All you can do is use the knowledge gained towards next season.

     The stepping down of Ketchhoel was not a surprise as he stated when he won that he was only looking to be a one term manager. And no one can deny the hours upon hours him and assistant Canucks357 poured into the national team. But many managers were heling along the way. Two of them had the ambitions of running the team that first season. They were second highest in votes also. This season they re-ran and unanimously won. These two elusive managers (just kidding. Check the forum. you will see them on every page) have more than enough credentials. They have been working together gathering data and testing formations. Crunching numbers and even mixing and burning things in test tubes with Bunsen burners (maybe?).

     Born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A ten year stint in Germany and now over a decade living in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, slavko74 is no rookie when it comes to football. He has been playing no matter where he resided playing as a keeper. He now is teaching fundamentals while coaching area youth. Perhaps even developing the core values of a future superstar?

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Q. Do you feel that your real life knowledge translates well into the game?
A. You need to have some basic knowledge of the sport you are playing online but I don’t think it will help you to be successful.

Q. Are you ready for a big season?
A. Big season it is and I am ready.

Q. Did you expect how much workload there is with managing the NT?
A. I took this job knowing that I have to dedicate a lot of time. It is the sport I love and have passion about whether online or in real life.

Q. What are your aspirations with team Canada?
A. First thing is to qualify Canada for the WC, that is most important. Also an important thing will be to end up in a good position on the countries ranking list.

Q. What do you say to the people who felt Canada's performance last season was a disappointment?
A. I do say myself it was a disappointing season for Canada. We have some of the best players in the world, our team strength when I compared it at the start of the last season was one of the top in the world and it still is. We could have been in a much better position on the standings and from there we could have gone easy with the rest of the qualify season, I mean saving energy for the upcoming WC, but it is what it is and I am not going to complain about that.

Q. How do you feel about winning the vote?
A. I am grateful to the Canada community for the support, believing and giving me a chance to lead our country to the next level.

Q. What has lead you into picking Skipman6 as your assistant? What does he bring to the table?
A. We have been working together since the first election where we didn’t get enough support but we said between us that we are going to stick together and try again the next season and here we are. We followed our NT since the first day, shared the thoughts after almost every game and we also decided to scout some of the players from our group in the WC qualify. I am scouting forwards and he is doing defenders and if there is time we are gonna do midfielders too.

Q. You run what many would say s the most successful team in Canada( NK Divlje Jagode). Do you have any secrets you can share with the community?
A. There are no secrets. Everyone can see how I play this game and copy. Only thing I can say is that every game I check and analyze the opponent for weakness if there is any and then go from there.

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     Not only did I have the luxury of talking with Slavko74 but I also took the opportunity to speak with his assistant skipman6. Running a very strong team; Kenora Stingers, he has much experience playing top tier teams. Finishing almost always in the top 10 of all situations his team has been in (NC, CWC, LC and league play). Plus he is very well versed as you will al learn soon enough.

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Q. So are you excited about your recent promotion into assistant manager for Team Canada soccer?
A. I am extremely excited about it. I wanted to be part of the National Team program ever since I started this game. It seemed like we had to wait forever for the NT program to start. From the begining I had announced my intention to run as a candidate for the NT Manager position. I had placed well in my International and National Cup performances, but I was duely disappointed when I ran as a candidate last season and was outvoted like 32-17. So near the end of the past season when Ketch had announced he was only interested in a one year tenure I began talking with Slavko74 and since he had won 4 of the first 5 seasons I realized it would probably be better if he ran as the manager and I as the assistant. You see it was hard at the time to give up my candicany because I thought I could put a winning strategy in place and I didn't really know slavko74 that well, all I knew was that he knew how to win soccer games and that is what Team Canada needs.

Q. What do you two plan on doing differently for team Canada?
A. Well right off the bat we wanted to focus on getting a few universal midfielders in action. We plan on doing some chemistry building for our new player's so we will use this opportunity to try to show the opposition some different looks. We are trying to build a very versitile team. We want to have the ability to attack down either side of the wing and focus on the weak side of our opponents.

Q. What would you like to see the team achieve?
A. Well for starters I would like for our team to secure at least a second place finish in our World Cup pool. Being that we are only three points behind and seven away from first. And given that we are a Top 5 Team I believe a trip to the final would not be out of the question.

Q. What is your role as the assistant manager?
A. Well I suppose one of the main things I do is study player builds. Since I have access to the NT and have a couple hundred players scouted I am able to make recommendations to players managers in order to try to optimize their individual's game rating and performance. I am also scouting our world cup pool opponents.

Q. Lastly, how is it working with Slavko?
A. Oh man, it couldn't be any better! It is just like I was working with my best friend. He is an excellent strategist and thinks very similar to me. I was afraid that it may be a one way street and I would have no say, but it hasn't been anything like that at all. We started mailing each other in the last two weeks of last season and made sure we had all the Canadian NT prospects scouted collectively. This in turn led us to start an advanced scouting program on our opponents. When we talked about potential players for the NT we let our opinion be known to each other, and it worked out great. In the end we both agreed to every player on the team. There were tough decisions to be made on player cuts and additions and I know for sure that the team is better with our collective knowledge of our selection of players.

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     So as you all can see we have left our National Team in very good hands. Tried, tested and true managers who have faced almost every aspect in this sport combining to run the best of the best our country has. If you feel like you have anything to add you can either reply to this article or you can comment here. And if you feel you have a player who is stellar and may have missed the radar you can add them into the player uploader. Even if they are a future prospect for the team do not hesitate.

I thank these two managers for the time they have given me and to you; the reader, for taking the time to read my first official article. This is Aowyr signing out until next time. ;)