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Bit of a return to form tonight. Some people might have raised eyebrows at the lineup if it had been seen in advance, but it worked out well enough.

Barker was the star offensively, as you might expect using motion. I did expect more from Gascoigne and Marshall, that was one of the reasons I moved them around today, but they didn't shoot as well as expected, though I think its fairly clear that the passing of the starting 5 as a whole was a factor throughout.

Defensively we were up against LI, and there was a possibility that O'Malley, their star man, could have been dominant but Marshall did well enough against him, and Innes was strong enough defensively to hold their C.

Overall I'm quite happy with how the game went, after last week's disappointment. We seem back on track. Obviously we have to aim for a 7-1 record now, though its hard to be too confident until we see the draw, but as always, I don't see the point of having low goals.

The draw has been made. Can't really complain about a random draw but since I'm a glass half empty kinda guy I'm still disappointed. The three away games are to our highest ranked opponents, one of which is a much bigger nation than ours. Rankings aren't always a guide but I think the schedule could have been easier, but equally it could have been much much worse. There are quite a few big BB nations in the consolation and we've avoided the biggest of them.

16/02/2015 19:00:00 50 România at 25 England
23/02/2015 18:00:00 25 England at 36 Deutschland
02/03/2015 17:30:00 25 England at 45 Österreich
09/03/2015 19:00:00 64 Luxembourg at 25 England
16/03/2015 16:30:00 25 England at 33 Slovenija
23/03/2015 19:00:00 90 Pakistan at 25 England

I'm not entirely sure if its going to happen tomorrow, or the monday after, but both Moomins and Gibraltar Monkeys have some decent English players. Moomins have Robert Osman who was a regular NT player last season, and would be again, given good game shape. So he should soon be a free agent. His salary is 154k.

Edited to remove his skills as he's now on the list.




Last edited by Gully Foyle at 2/16/2015 6:44:55 AM

We were playing a decent team today, Romania, I think possibly their ranking doesn't reflect their abilities, but I knew going in we had a significant enthusiasm advantage, and felt confident that home advantage would be more than enough for us to win fairly easily.

We got on top early, dominated every facet of the game and in the end were deserved 27 point winners. The one disappointing thing is that the coach replaced all the starters for the 4th quarter, something I did not expect. It would seem that let coach decide, which has never allowed garbage time, now does. Something I don't think was announced, and something I'm not entirely happy with. But what else is new?

Top scorer today was Elmo Armada in his first game of the season. He was replacing usual SF starter Connor Marshall, who I felt wasn't fit enough today. Its almost unthinkable not to start Marshall, but today Armada seemed a better choice. I think its fair to say he did a very good job.

Another thing garbage time robbed us of was the chance for Luke Innes to get a triple double. He seemed to have a strong chance being only three assists short but he sat out the entire 4th.

Overall the starters performed very well, the backups, less so really. I have a slight concern over TOs but I'm prepared to write that off as a one off.

We have two away games coming up now. I'm not sure its going to be possible to win them both, so I'm looking at all possibilities at the moment. Seeding is important but winning one of the two would be better than losing both. I'm not ruling out the chance of winning both but it will be difficult. Had we been at home the week after Germany then it could have been different.

Armada what a hero. I may buy another NT player:-)

I told you before you bought him he was good.

Or maybe I said he was for sale. Well, same thing!!

I really felt confident about this one. When the game started, everything was pretty much as I expected. I thought they'd predict inside, but I felt low post played so much to our strengths that it wouldn't be a big factor. I expected them to avoid an inside offence, and indeed they chose motion. I'd included most our strong OD players so I felt we could handle that too.

Indeed that was how the game went for three quarters. It was close and entering the fourth I felt confident still that we'd gain the upper hand. Then their best scorer fouled out, his backup was injured and so I sat back waiting for Big Mac to destroy their third choice.

Of course, that's not how it went. Our high OD players were getting hit by 3s, in fact the Germans seemed to be able to score at will. And we stopped scoring too. I don't feel the fourth quarter reflected the quality of the two teams in anyway, but that doesn't alter the fact that that is how it happened.

So, more disappointment, especially given the excellent game shape we had this week. There's no hiding the fact that we're in a bit of a hole. I hope no one has lost hope yet. I'm not giving up on qualification at least.

(I had to post this twice, I'd been logged out, and I apologise but the first draft was much better!)

I think England hasn't faced many defences quite as good as Germany's, no matter what the ratings say. Some of their players are loaded with SB. Also their 5-13 from 3 at the PF-C positions looks really solid.

Sometimes you just need to give credit to the opponents and this was also an away game, of course.

Last edited by Lemonshine at 2/23/2015 7:07:48 PM

As you said, I thought we had a really good chance to beat Germany especially due to the excellent game shape. I think gully made the correct choices as in the offensive play. I re watched the 4th and I find it do weird how they manage to up the ante all of a sudden and we struggle. I'm not giving up hope gully, think you can still manage to pull us through, keep going mate!