HT: U20 USA

[TargetPractice6]

I'll post my weekly updates here from now on to make a sort of pseudo-dynasty. I may post some other little updates too. :)

Feel free to chat about the team here, and I'll answer any questions you guys have about the team. Once the World Cup rolls around, I won't be posting any information I wouldn't want getting out. But for now it really doesn't matter.

[TargetPractice6]

Last week we had a nice win against Finland. The team is really starting to show some promise. This week we play Romania, defending U20 World Champions. Beating them would give us a huge amount of rankings points, so I'm going to normal this match.

We'll run in a 3-5-2 since only 2 of our forwards are in decent form. I was pleased with the Deluca/Jackson combo last week so they'll be playing oppsite each other again. In fact the lineup will be pretty similar to last week's.

Harkins will be back in this week since I want to win this match. The midfield is where the most change is. Curtis Hand and Ray Swafford will start this week. Swafford is finally getting out of his form slump.

No tactics this week.

Starting Lineup
Keeper: Ernest Quarles
Defenders: Ed Meade, Arthur Harkins, Joe Bautista
Midfielders: Ray Swafford, Quentin Burroughs, Curtis Hand
Wingers:Carter Deluca, Ken Jackson
Forwards:Charlie Gregg, Taylor Hagen

[TargetPractice6]

Here are the matches we have remaining. The home field is specified if it has been determined.

2-27-2004: Chile
3-05-2004: Chile
3-12-2004: at Romania
3-19-2004: Eesti (Estonia)
3-26-2004: Misr (Egypt)
4-02-2004: Misr
4-09-2004: Eesti
4-16-2004: at Canada
4-23-2004: Pending
4-30-2004: Pending
WC Begins

I'm trying to schedule an easier team for the last two matches so we can have good confidence heading into the World Cup.

[Havok]

SWEET!!!

[sterlingice]

"Nuts and Gum: Together at Last! Because you Demanded it!"

SI

[3ric]

Do you do a lot of scouting to determine your roster? Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I have no idea how the national teams work.

[NAIWF]

Nice comeback win over the Romanian squad. I wonder if GM George will complain about you giving up 2 goals though? ;)

[TargetPractice6]

I didn't have to do a bunch of scouting this time. I'm sure there are players out there to be found, but HT is so big it would be futile to look.

Also, I'm happy about our first winning streak. This win bumped us up from 8th in the world rankings to 5th. I think this pretty much assures us of getting a bye to the first group round.

[TargetPractice6]

A couple notable injuries...

#2 forward Merlin Spears currently is currently +5. Hopefully he can make it back in a couple weeks.

#6 defender Thomas Mccabe is currently +3. This doesn't really hurt much since Mccabe is our worst defender. This may allow somebody else to take his spot if he misses more than one week of training.

[MrBug708]

Even though I am Anti-HT, I might read this thread...

[DukeRulesMAB]

Ouch...that sucks on Spears. Forward seemed to be a strong spot for us as well.

[sterlingice]

How do you deal with injuries? If someone gets a +7 and is out for at least 4 weeks, do you reaplace him with another? Or do you keep the injured guy? I've gotta think there are lots of guys out there of somewhat similar skill that would blow by a guy out for 4 weeks but because of the flawed way experience is done, is it just not worth it because someone who has been with the team has so much more experience than any "scrub" non-U20 player?

SI

[TargetPractice6]

So far I haven't had to drop anybody from the team due to injuries. I dropped Bud Wray after he was injured for 5 weeks, but that was because his replacement was better than anybody on the team. It just so happened he was our worst midfielder.

Now extend injuries like Mccabe are tricky. There are several defenders right on his heels and it looks like he won't get training for at least two weeks. Therefore he may end up being a week behind somebody not on the team. I still think I'll keep him though. It's only one week of training for the worst player on the team. Odds are the #6 defender on the depth chart won't play much anyway. Now if he is to get injured again, or takes more than two weeks to heal, I may have to switch to somebody else. I thin Preston Davis on lytic's team in only a week behind, or maybe it's two.

[TargetPractice6]

Last week's win against Romania was a huge success for us. We jumped from 8th to 5th in the world rankings, which greatly increases our already good chances of a getting a bye to the first round of group play. In addition, this is the first time this team has one two straight. After losing the first six games of my term, the team has only lost two of the last eight games. So we are showing definite improvement.

However, one of those two losses was, in fact, to Chile. We lost 3-0 playing abroad in our last match of Copa America. Luckily our team spirit has stayed at POE in the two weeks since we last played it cool. So we definitely can make it through the two week break before group play with POE TS. This is also a very good sign.

Chile is a relatively defensive team that we should be able to beat. I could see us losing due to the midfield defecit of being on the road. However, Chile's TS has dropped to delirious and the coach has already informed me they are PICing. We are PICing too, by the way.

The lineup will be mostly the same as last week. Notable difference are Leornad Mora in for Arthur Harkins and Kristopher Miller in for Ray Swafford. Both are playing to get experience. Making it three in a row before all of the players turn 20 would be nice.

Starting Lineup
Keeper: Ernest Quarles
Defenders: Ed Meade, Leonard Mora, Joe Bautista
Midfielders: Kristopher Miller, Quentin Burroughs, Curtis Hand
Wingers:Carter Deluca, Ken Jackson
Forwards:Charlie Gregg, Taylor Hagen

[Fonzie]

Very cool, TP6. I'll be following this!

[TargetPractice6]

Just as I thought. It seems we lost due to our worse midfield. Of course we aren't going to win many games with 60% possession. However, this was one of the best sets of attack ratings yet. The good news is there were no major injuries. Ken Jackson was bruised, but that's okay. Hopefully we can get one back next week hosting Chile.

[TargetPractice6]

Here is our current roster so you can see which players play which position.

Keepers
Ernest Quarles
Joe Berrios

Defenders
Ed Meade
Arthur Harkins
Leonardo Mora
Joe Bautista
Vernon Cooper
Thomas Mccabe

Inner Mids
Kristopher Miller
Ray Swafford
Quentin Burroughs
Curtis Hand
Darryl Basham
Edward Browne

Wings
Carter Deluca
Ken Jackson
Andrew Souza
Ronny Mckinley

Forwards
Charlie Gregg
Merlin Spears
Shelton Blocker
Taylor Hagen

[PilotMan]

Nice Job TP, keep us in the loop. It certainly brings the big picture closer to home.

[TargetPractice6]

Last week's loss was somewhat of a disappointed, but we would have been lucky to overcome the midfield defecit. This week however should be a different story. Chile evidentally just overhauled their team. They now feature many 19 year olds and irritated team spirit. Needless to say, this is a game we should win.

The lineup will be mostly the same as the one we've used the past couple weeks. I'm mainly putting in certain players to get experience. That's why we won't see Arthur Harkins and Charlie Gregg starting this week. Andrew Souza is also in this week replacing Ken Jackson, who has played in the last few games.

The state of the team: After this week's training, all of our mids have excellent stamina, which is a good thing. Long-term injuries have been abundant as of late. Luckily (depending on who you look at it), two of them were to our two worst defenders. The one in particular that hurts is Merlin Spears. He's missed a couple weeks of training now and he is our second best scorer. Hopefully he can heal his last 2 weeks before next week's cup games.

I probably going to add a new coach, too (Sorry Afoci). I've seen a couple solid leadership coaches, but they've belonged to teams outside the US. I'd rather add an American team's coach since I am sure there is one out there that fits the bill. So if you, or somebody you know, has a solid leadership coach that is fond of attacking let me know.

Starting Lineup
Keeper: Ernest Quarles*
Defenders: Ed Meade, Leonard Mora, Joe Bautista
Midfielders: Kristopher Miller, Quentin Burroughs, Curtis Hand
Wingers:Carter Deluca, Andrew Souza
Forwards:Shelton Blocker, Taylor Hagen

*Joe Berrios may play if Quarles' form drops tomorrow morning.

[DukeRulesMAB]

Why'd Chile do that? Are they out of the running for the U-20 Cup this year and trying to get a leg up on the next cup qualifying?

[Blade6119]

Hey TP6, can you give any idea on the value of the top 18 YOs, or at least whats looking to make the next team right now?

[TargetPractice6]

I have no idea to tell you the truth. Haven't heard any reasons for them doing it. Strange to me because I think they were well into qualification range. Looks like they are building for the new system since they added mainly 19 year olds. They'll be 20 next season during the qualifications.

[TargetPractice6]

Hey TP6, can you give any idea on the value of the top 18 YOs, or at least whats looking to make the next team right now?
I'm not keeping the list of 18 year olds. You'll have to contact brxnivy about that. He's helping me a ton by keeping track of future U20 players.

[TargetPractice6]

Last week's game against Chile went mostly as expected. There were a bit more missed and blocked attacks than I would have liked, but you take what you can get.

We had an extremely good training update tonight. Five of our six IMs went up in form, and only one player on the team dropped in form. We also had five experience bumps this week. That was quite nice considering we've only had 2 other bumps in the last five weeks.

Injuries continue to remain a problem. All of our injuries seem to be long term as of late. Merlin Spears, Vernon Cooper, Thomas Mccabe and Arthur Harkins have all gone down with at least four week injuries recently. Harkins is still recovering so it goes without saying that he won't play tomorrow. We finally have Spears, our #2 forward, back this week. However, his form isn't quite good enough for him to regain his starting role just yet (Both Gregg and Hagen are in excellent form).

I'm looking for players to fill out the roster in a couple weeks. The only two positions still up in the air are keeper and winger. So if you know of a keeper that is extra-terrestrial at minimum then give me a shout. Wingers are a bit of a different story. I'd prefer him to have supernatural winger at minimum and good secondaries. However, I'm also considering adding a playmaking-heavy winger. So:

Keeper: Extra-terrestrial
Winger: Supernatural w/secondaries OR Good PM/winger

I'm putting in our best lineup against Romania tomorrow. Hopefully we can pull out an upset on the road.

Notable lineup changes: Berrios in for Quarles at keeper. Souza is taking Deluca's winger spot this week. Kristopher Miller will be playing winger towards middle to try to keep up with Romania in the midfield. Gregg is back in for Blocker this week since it isn't raining.

We will be playing it cool again.

Starting Lineup
Keeper: Joe Berrios
Defenders: Ed Meade, Leonard Mora, Joe Bautista
Midfielders: Ray Swafford, Quentin Burroughs, Curtis Hand
Wingers: Kristopher Miller, Andrew Souza
Forwards: Charlie Gregg, Taylor Hagen

[sterlingice]

What? No love for Buster Wolfe?

SI

[DukeRulesMAB]

Aren't "best lineup" and "no Deluca" mutually exclusive phrases? ;)

[TargetPractice6]

Well, there was only one offensive winger spot available in this setup. Souza is two levels behind in winger, but three levels ahead in PM (and has solid defense to boot). Although the deciding factor really was Souza's solid form compared to Deluca's inadequate. :)

SI, I've pretty much decided to keep the coach we have. The effect of changing coaches is pretty unpredictable. Just today one U20 coach reported his TS dropping to murderous from POE due to a coach change. I think passable leadership will suffice.

[sterlingice]

Never mind, I thought he was named to U-20 but he was named to the National team.

SI

[DukeRulesMAB]

Ah, was unaware of Deluca's form issues. Yep, sounds like you have the better man out there this week.

[Desnudo]

I'll post my weekly updates here from now on to make a sort of pseudo-dynasty. I may post some other little updates too. :)

Feel free to chat about the team here, and I'll answer any questions you guys have about the team. Once the World Cup rolls around, I won't be posting any information I wouldn't want getting out. But for now it really doesn't matter.

Very cool idea. Thanks for setting it up. :)