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Today we're playing against Hungary, an opponent that I've been mentioning for a while now. They aren't as strong as Portugal, but they are still a tricky opponent to beat in an away match. They seem to have maximum enthusiasm, and our game shapes are similar.

Kezer got injured last week (45622230), so we won't be able to count on him for today's match. But thankfully, Mecdi finally has GS 8 (46958389), so he joined the team, as well as veteran Rikkat (45621606), who is still one of the best guards we have.

19:40 Türkiye vs Magyarország

Türkiye vs Magyarország vs 79-97 (68803)

First loss of the season. Home court + bigger enthusiasm + missed zone, resulted in a routine win for Hungary.

Since Ergül and Miran, our two best outside players were in GS 7, and Kezer was injured inside, our only viable option was to play an inside tactic. As for our defense in this match, I was contemplating whether to play 3-2 with an inside gdp, or a 2-3 without a gdp. I knew that we had to risk in order to win, and thought that the chances are slightly higher for them to play inside, rather than outside, since they played outside against Czech in the previous round (68775), and their outside offense was pretty poor in that match.

2. France (**)		5:0	+226
3. Suomi (**)		5:0	+225
4. Belgium (**)		5:0	+223
5. Bulgaria		5:0	+209
6. Bosna		5:0	+194
7. Sverige		5:0	+171
8. England		5:0	+168
10. Ukraina		5:0	+130
11. Rossiya		5:0	+122
12. Lietuva (**)	4:1	+204
13. Türkiye		4:1	+188
14. România		4:1	+185
15. Slovenija		4:1	+126
16. Magyarország	4:1	+126
19. Latvija		4:1	+104
21. Belarus		4:1	+83
23. Danmark		4:1	+21

27. Slovensko		3:2	+83
28. Portugal		3:2	+79
32. Srbija		3:2	+65

Our next two matches against India and Costa Rica should be easy wins, and than in the last round the match against Belgium will determine whether we play 7-1 or 6-2 after the round-robin phase.

We had 3 tough matches in our draw, Portugal (A), Hungary (A), and Belgium (H). I knew it would be difficult to win all three, but as long as we win against Belgium, we should be in a good position before the playoffs.

India vs Türkiye vs 41-117 (68839)

1. France (**)		6:0	+302
2. Belgium (**)		6:0	+297
4. England		6:0	+248
5. Bulgaria		6:0	+241
6. Bosna		6:0	+222
7. Rossiya		6:0	+187
9. România		5:1	+268
10. Türkiye		5:1	+264
11. Lietuva (**)	5:1	+232
12. Suomi (**)		5:1	+212
14. Sverige		5:1	+143
15. Slovenija		5:1	+132
17. Ukraina		5:1	+128
19. Latvija		5:1	+116
20. Danmark		5:1	+24

21. Slovensko		4:2	+164
23. Portugal		4:2	+144
24. Srbija		4:2	+128

After 6 rounds, only 6 European teams remain with all 6 wins. As I've mentioned before, it's gonna be difficult for any nation to win in all 8 games. There will be some interesting match-ups between the top nations in the next round:

Belgium (6-0) vs England (6-0)
Ukraine (5-1) vs Bulgaria (6-0)
Sweden (5-1) vs Bosnia (6-0)
Australia (4-2) vs Romania (5-1)

Our next game is against Costa Rica, which we should be able to win easily. Our point difference is already looking good, but we should be able to improve it further with the next game, as Costa Rica only has 2 active users, and is quite weak.

Türkiye vs Costa Rica 109-54 (68873)

Last week, we've beaten Costa Rica easily as expected.

1. France (**)		7:0	+357
2. Belgium (**)		7:0	+322
3. Rossiya		7:0	+258
4. Bulgaria		7:0	+244
5. Bosna		7:0	+231
7. Türkiye		6:1	+319
8. Lietuva (**)		6:1	+257
9. Suomi (**)		6:1	+255
11. England		6:1	+223
12. Latvija		6:1	+185
14. Slovenija		6:1	+165
16. Portugal		5:2	+217
17. Srbija		5:2	+213

In their last match, Bulgaria managed to win by 2p against Urkaine in their most difficult match (68884), and Bosnia managed to win against Sweden after overtime (68889). With these victories, they will surely play 8-0.

5 European nations remain undefeated, and 6 more (including us) are playing 6-1. There are many European nations playing 5-2, and Portugal and Serbia are the strongest among those.

Interesting matches in the last round:

Away Team	Home Team
Belgium (7-0)	vs Türkiye (6-1)
France (7-0)	vs England (6-1)
Eesti (4-3)	vs Rossiya (7-0)
Suomi (6-1)	vs Österreich (5-2)

The calculations are simple. If we win against Belgium by 2+ points, we will be in front of them, and will end up in the top 5, since Colombia (currently 6th), will almost certainly lose against Lithuania.

If we lose, we'll end up between 13th-15th place, which is pretty bad, and we wouldn't stand much of a chance to win the Tournament.

That being said, our game shape continues to be poor. Pretty much all season our game shape has been worse than our opponents'. This week, we only have 4 players with GS 9, and 3 players are with GS 7, among which are Bingün & Ergul, who are arguably our most important players. Compared to that, Belgium has 8 players in GS 9, and just 1 player in GS 7.

Still, we have the home court advantage, so it should be an interesting battle.

18:00 Belgium vs Türkiye

Belgium vs Türkiye 86-80 (68923)

Last Monday we played a very close match against Belgium, which they managed to turn around in the 4th quarter. The main reason for the loss was that I chickened out and didn't guess inside gdp, even though I fully expected them to play inside. Even though our game shape was much worse than theirs, I thought that home court advantage alone would be enough, but I was wrong.

The match against Belgium was a key match for us. With a defeat, we ended up the round robin phase on a 13th place, which isn't good, since we're only gonna have home court advantage in the next round.

In the end, 22 European nations qualified for the round 32.

1. France (**)		8:0	+366
2. Belgium (**)		8:0	+328
3. Bosna		8:0	+325
4. Bulgaria		8:0	+313
5. Rossiya		8:0	+277
7. Lietuva (**)		7:1	+287
8. Suomi (**)		7:1	+278
9. Latvija		7:1	+214
10. Slovenija		7:1	+204
13. Türkiye		6:2	+313
14. România		6:2	+278
15. Srbija		6:2	+243
16. Portugal		6:2	+230
17. England		6:2	+214
18. Hrvatska		6:2	+207
22. Magyarország	6:2	+148
23. Danmark		6:2	+29
24. Česká Rep.		5:3	+213
25. Slovensko		5:3	+170
27. Österreich		5:3	+148
30. Ukraina		5:3	+115
31. Sverige		5:3	+113

Even though BBs changed the way how draw works for this season, luck in draw still played a major part, since we had 3 very tough matches from which 2 were away, while some were lucky to not get any tough away matches against European nations.

Game shape of our key players seems to be the worst when we play the most important matches. Game shape against Belgium was so bad that I was even considering to let Ergul and Bingun play even though their GS was 6 & 7, since even their substitutes who are much worse players were in low 8. Poor GS is mainly my fault to be frank (partially luck too), as I should've been more in contact with the managers of NT players, and keep reminding them to keep their minutes optimal.

Our path towards the semi-final looks like this:

Round 32: Venezuela (home)
Round 16: Bulgaria or Uruguay (most likely Bulgaria away)
Round 8: Winner of: Russia vs Malaysia & Peru vs Colombia (most likely Russia or Colombia away)

From now on, we need to win every game. Today we're playing against Venezuela, whose biggest victory this season was against Slovenia (68773). They're most likely gonna play crunch time, so it won't be an easy match.

18:00 Venezuela vs Türkiye

Despite the GS, we almost won the game. I am very sorry that we lost this important match. I hope GS's will be better now and it will not be a factor that makes our job difficult. Good luck in the next round. (y)

Venezuela vs Türkiye 70-96 (69193)

In round 32, all 16 nations that had home-court advantage won their games, including us. Venezuela chose not to play crunch-time, so it turned out to be an easy game for us.

Today, we are playing against Bulgaria, led by on the of the best BB managers - mink0ff, who won B3 two times with his previous club BC Vitosha Sofia, and is now trying to attain glory for his national team as well.

At the start of the Tournament, I've mentioned Bulgaria as one of the strongest nations in the competition, and I wasn't wrong. Their squad is quite young, so they haven't yet reached their peak, but I'm expecting that they'll fight for medals within the next few seasons.

They will be the favorites since they have home-court advantage, so it's possible that this will be my last official game as Türkiye's coach, but hopefully not.

18:30 Türkiye vs Bulgaria

Türkiye vs Bulgaria 83-71 (69244)

The game shape of our key players was really good this week, and the outcome was that even with gdp missed, we beat Bulgaria on their home court.

In one of our friendly matches against Serbia, our 2-3 zone proved to be extremely strong against inside tactics (67822). My goal was to have 2-3 zone as a hidden weapon for matches like this, and it worked. I was more afraid of their neutral tactics, with which they beat Portugal (68683) & Uruguay (69192), but they chose to play inside, and our 2-3 zone did the job.

In an incredible turnaround of events, only Romania and us remain as the candidates for hosting the European Championship next season.

Serbia, Russia, Slovenia, Portugal, Letonia and Bosnia, all lost their matches in this round. In other words, we suddenly became the main candidate to host the European Championship.

Quarter finals are:

**Suomi (8) - **France (1)
Türkiye (13) – Colombia (12)
**Belgium (2) – **Lietuva (7)
România (14) – Brasil (11)/México (6)

@Captain K

A question to you. Except France, Belgium, Lithuania and Finland there are only 2 European teams are on their way: Us and Romania. Let's say if France wins the tournament, who will host the next championship next season? A better ranking team -it's Bosna and Herzegovina or the country who goes further?

If the answer is the second one and if us and Romania loses in the next round or if we win and Romania loses, we will host. Right?

Whoever goes further will host the championship next season. In other words, if both Romania and us lose in the same round, we would still host the next championship (since we were better placed than them). I'll double check it with the BBs, but I'm pretty sure that's the case.

Speaking for myself, I want you to stay if you are interested as well. I don't know if it's your final decision or not and the reason behind that but i hope you reconsider continuing.

Thank you for your support and kind words, but there's probably 80% chance that I won't be the candidate again in the next elections, even if we host the next championship. The main reason doesn't have anything to do with bb.

At the beginning of the year, I was diagnosed with some uncommon eye disease, and while it's not super serious, I'm not able to spend much time looking at a PC screen. A NT coach should be able to send hundreds of bb-mails each season over training, but I'm simply not able to do that right now. So I think it's better for the community if someone replaces me.