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Dear all,

On Monday the qualifications for the WC kick off. We are in Pool F which is the following:

Team	        W	L	PF	PA	%	Ranking
1Deutschland    0	0	0	0	0.000	9
2Belgium        0	0	0	0	0.000	10
3Danmark	0	0	0	0	0.000	33
4England        0	0	0	0	0.000	38
5Sakartvelo	0	0	0	0	0.000	57
6Cyprus	        0	0	0	0	0.000	59
7Shqipëria     	0	0	0	0	0.000	72
8Ireland      	0	0	0	0	0.000	75

Our calendar is pretty good. We start with Ireland @ home.

The obvious favourites, given their rankings, are Deutschland and
Belgium with England and Danmark as runner ups.

I believe we stand a chance to go through (with quite a bit of luck, but still...)


Last edited by elboss at 12/24/2009 2:09:48 PM

Ireland is our first opponent this time around.

In the last consolation tournament they arrived 64th (with a 2-6 record) and did not qualify for the elimination stage. In the last qualifications they ended at the 7th place of pool B with a 1-6 record winning only against Malta.

Obviously we are favourites but we are not going to underestimate the irish!

Their manager is dhoff from the NBBA, he won the election with only 2 votes. So far he didn't do much with the team (there is no roster at the moment), so we shall see what happens in the next few days...

Out second match is against Shqipëria. They have an italian manager ÐΞﮎ@ﮎңQipΞR[A from II.2, it's his second term with the team (I believe...)

They haven't got much roster depth and so far have disappointed. They ended the consolation tournamente with a 0-8 record.

They do post reasonable ratings though, so we have to watch out!

For example these are the stats of one of their guards (not a starter though, those are better!)

Ferit Sina (4650356)

Weekly salary: $ 20 417

DMI: 56200 
Age: 24 
Height: 6'4" / 193 cm 
Potential: starter 
Game Shape: respectable
Jump Shot: prolific	 Jump Range: prominent
Outside Def.: prolific	 Handling: strong
Driving: mediocre	 Passing: respectable
Inside Shot: awful	 Inside Def.: pitiful
Rebounding: inept	 Shot Blocking: awful
Stamina: strong	 Free Throw: inept ↑
 	  
Experience: inept

Here is another one: Shkëndijor Golemi (4650351), he played as 2nd PF against Denmark (8666)

Weekly salary: $ 39 163 

DMI: 71500 
Age: 25 
Height: 7'2" / 218 cm 
Potential: star 
Game Shape: inept
Jump Shot: proficient	 Jump Range: strong
Outside Def.: pitiful	 Handling: pitiful
Driving: mediocre	 Passing: awful
Inside Shot: sensational	 Inside Def.: prominent
Rebounding: prominent	 Shot Blocking: sensational
Stamina: mediocre	 Free Throw: prolific
 	  
Experience: average	

And yet some more: Eriel Albajrami (7625792), starting Center against Denmark.

Weekly salary: $ 30 080 

DMI: 111900 
Age: 23 
Height: 6'10" / 208 cm 
Potential: perennial allstar 
Game Shape: strong
Jump Shot: strong	 Jump Range: pitiful
Outside Def.: awful	 Handling: atrocious
Driving: pitiful	 Passing: awful
Inside Shot: sensational	 Inside Def.: prolific
Rebounding: sensational	 Shot Blocking: inept
Stamina: awful	 Free Throw: atrocious
 	  
Experience: mediocre

Last edited by elboss at 1/1/2010 9:58:00 AM

Here is the match against Ireland...

(8667)

So far, so good. We are leading rather confortably (91-58 at the moment)

Somewhere else in Pool F, Belgium is actually losing (end of Q3) 83-69 against Cyprus! Shocking... Cyprus might have grabbed the bull by the horns and sneaked in a CT, let's see how it ends!

The rest is inline with expectations, with Germany and Danmark winning relatively comfortably...

A comfortable win 119-86 (8667), I think this puts us 2nd after DK on the table.

The surprise of this round is without doubt the loss of Belgium vs Cyprus. a TIE vs CT situation (8665), Belgium is a direct competitor of ours in the race to the 2nd spot (the 1st is, theoretically speaking, taken by Germany)

This is a good proof that TIE is a dangerous thing to do... Still it seems like the belgium guards were destroyed by the cypriot's collegues. IMHO it was a risky choice from Cyprus, pre-match I'd think they would lose even with a CT!

The starting guards for Cyprus don't seem that scary:

Agapitos Atmatzidis (6166959)
Yiorgos Lavdas (6253133)

But they were in good shape (strong) the Belgium guards were in good shape as well, but they look rather weak:

Kenny Belleville (6846488)
Stefan Van Quaquebeke (5861280)

Note that those are the worst guards on the Belgium roster. However the best guards have bad GS at the moment (average and mediocre).

With 20/20 hindsight the choice of guards from the Belgium side was unfortunate. A strong OD guard in poor shape would have saved the day... Then again if Cyprus did not play CT it would not have been an issue...

May I ask the teams with english NT players to look after their game shape!??!

This slip on the Belgium side is a reminder of how important GS is!

A good, comfortable start, elboss, against the Irish. Good luck for the rest of the tournament. Wish my guys were anywhere near good enough for you...

A good, comfortable start, elboss, against the Irish. Good luck for the rest of the tournament. Wish my guys were anywhere near good enough for you...

Thanks! If you train Jody properly he might be good enough pretty soon :)

Ha! I've now got two forwards who need serious traiing, and it's starting to interfere with my other plans. Oh well, it'll be worth it to see one of my players make the NT. Cheers.

On Monday we face Shqipëria, on paper not the most fearful opponent, but after the "shocking" result of Cyprus-Belgium we all know not to take any match for granted!

They lost their opening match against DK (8666) but posted a "Proficient" inside attack. And overall, their stats are not nearly as bad as you'd think.

In fact they seem better than other teams in the group... This week their GS is messed up, which should help us to no end.

Thanks to all teams with english NT players, the GS this week is a lot better!

We have the stats of 3 out of 14 of their players (see above post). As usual we'll our best! Wish the team well!!

We'll be looking at the performance of Cyprus (against DK) as well, since they will be our next opponent.


Last edited by elboss at 1/1/2010 10:16:56 AM

This is our match again Shqipëria (8669)

We won 97-60, which is not bad. We also posted pretty decent ratings.

No real surprises in the group, Belgium won against Sakartvelo (8671), recovering from last week mishap...

We should be 1st in the group followed by Germany and Denmark!

Last edited by elboss at 1/4/2010 4:54:43 PM

Nice :-)