Tema: U20/U17 - Soccer

True, but regardless, when we go a man down that early it's gonna take some magic to win. Also, with their win, they have a weaker opponent next round. If we had won the game we'd have gotten top seed, and the Swiss have looked very good. So maybe they were trying to secure top seed.

Fortunately for us, Estonia put on the pressure and tied the Spanish. So we'll sneak into the next round despite today's debacle, playing against the aforementioned Swiss. The Swiss are not a bad matchup for us...we tied them on their own turf earlier in the season, and we were even beating them in ball control until we went a man down in the 57th minute.

Hopefully the guys learned a little something about discipline, although I don't really intend on letting up on the aggressiveness. Crenshaw is suspended so Dylan will definitely come back and play tomorrow.

Wow, a lot of send-offs, do you play in "aggressive"?

Well, I neglected to comment on our loss to Switzerland to this point, partly because I've been out of town and partly because I've been in denial, as I thought we had a really good chance of winning that game.

We out-controlled them all game, and we dominated on the right side of the field with Nate Dylan back in, which was my gameplan. We just couldn't seem to generate any scoring chances, which is not how you win a game playing with three forwards. In total, between the five forwards which saw game time, we had 0 shots on target and 2 shots wide. Actually, our only two shots on target were from our defenders. "Disappointing" is really the best description.

But, there is promise for the future...we've got a lot of very good returning players, and I think we gain something on a lot of the other teams we've been playing in that while many countries dropped all of their 20yo's to the U20 team this season, we kept our best 20yo's on the senior team (where they made a strong contribution to the WC run, which is a good sign for the future there). And so, where last year we were working without the top few U20 players in the country and competing well, this year we will be working with the top U20 players in the country. I'm excited to see how we fare.

I am running to take over the head manager spot for next season (I've been managing the team as the assistant this season); I won't repeat my whole presentation here, but I really hope for your vote. I'd be happy to have a conversation here about tactics, strategy, player choice, etc. Next season will likely be rather different, strategy-wise, than this one, depending on the players we get (especially depending on how the Henne/Ashcraft situation works out, which will have a huge effect on how the team needs to play).

Yes, I was playing on aggressive most of the season, to give us a bit of an edge. Our team was quite deep, so yellow card suspensions were not really a concern because anybody was replaceable. It's just the possibility of send-offs that I had to be worried about. Those two games (WC quals vs. Switzerland and PPM Cup vs. Montenegro) were the only competition games that we had a player sent off.

If I'm managing the team next season, I may change that up depending on how our roster stacks up against the other teams. It's looking like we'll be stacked with talent on the top end but our depth may not be as tolerant of suspensions, so a less aggressive approach may be more appropriate.

Ok, that makes sense, it wouldn't have made sense so many send offs in normal... Imo theres a huge gap between normal and agressive, in normal they play rough, getting a few cards, but send offs are rare, but in agressive, every one goes psycho"Pepe"-style

There is a pretty big gap as you say (perhaps to the point that there should be a five-point scale of aggressiveness rather than three), but I've also seen a pretty marked increase in control of the play. And so I see it as a trade-off to be considered: improve play but risk more cards vs. slightly lower quality of play but fewer cards. The proper choice is different for each team, and is generally dictated by the team's roster and its resilience to missed time, as well as the particular opponent being faced.

Well, for me the choice is between either can I risk a red card or penalty to control the ball more... If yes, I play in aggressive, if not, I play in normal, and I almost always play in normal

Sorry, the first sentence is weird, what I meant to was was that for me the choice is between whether I can risk a red card or penalty to control the ball more or not

Well, it appears that as assistant, I don't have the ability to make or accept challenges, or to add players. So we'll play this week with the vets left on the team from last year, and whenever the election ends, hopefully there will be teams left without games on their schedule that we can challenge to friendlies.

Well, it appears that as assistant, I don't have the ability to make or accept challenges, or to add players. So we'll play this week with the vets left on the team from last year, and whenever the election ends, hopefully there will be teams left without games on their schedule that we can challenge to friendlies.

Perhaps you can send messages to other general managers requesting that they reserve spots?

Thanks, guys...I'm optimistic that we'll be able to qualify for the U20 World Cup and make a run in the tournament. I've already spoken to zomg about acting as assistant for me, so I'll be adding him on shortly.

I've found a bunch of teams with empty friendly slots, so once I'm given the power, I'll send out a bunch of challenges and I think we'll be able to fill our friendly schedule to get some chemistry for the new guys.

I'll be adding most of the players I want on the team later in the week; I'll leave a few slots open for now to allow for flexibility throughout the season. I think there may be one or two players from last season that I'll drop, as well.

TOO BAD-- We coudl have had a fun one with the U-20 and NT playing in September....

Well, I feel like I should at least make a comment on last weekend's disappointment against Greece. That was two points that we really could've used on this campaign. We outplayed them, but only put 3 of our 10 shots on target and just couldn't slip one by. I was really hoping this game could even help us pad our GD, too. But all it did was put all three of our top CM's a yellow away from a suspension, which could be trouble later.

On the bright side, Switzerland lost to Canada (expected, but still beneficial) and Venezuela lost to India (unexpected and beneficial), so our tie moved us up to the #4 spot. Argentina upset Serbia, who looks to be saving energy for their top guys for the tournament. That puts Argentina three points ahead of us with a good GD advantage. They could be tough to catch...fortunately all we need is to hold this #4 spot.

So, this week we absolutely need to bounce back against Venezuela. Anything but a win here is really going to hurt our chances, especially since we pretty significantly out-rate them and we're at home. I'm planning to go with a similar lineup...we'll keep getting a little rest for the big guys at CM this game and next so they have some gas left when we start playing the top teams late in the tournament (especially the last game against Switzerland, which could be for the fourth and final WC berth).

Alright! Saturday's 3-0 win against Venezuela puts us in a good spot, giving us a one-game lead on Switzerland with a good GD advantage. If we can go into India and take three points like we should, I'll be very happy with where we sit, even with four tough games left on our schedule.

Kelly White made his debut at LM this week and looked great, giving us a good alternative to Lou Coleman , which is very good now that Harold Buckley 's ratios have gotten a bit messy recently (side note, if anybody is looking for a solid young LM, put a bid down on Buckley).

Our forwards are still working on finding the net, which is frustrating. Last game was 2 on target, 4 wide; this game was 4 on target, 7 wide. That needs to improve if we're going to beat the better teams in our group. I'll play with the positioning next week against India to see if we can figure out a way to do better.

We'll probably also see another debut or two next week, as I'd still like to get a feel for some of the backups and spread around the energy expenditure.