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After a successful campaign last season where we qualified for the second round of the European Championships for the first time since Season 55, we will be looking to improve on our performances and go further than we did in the Consolation tournament two seasons ago.

Our fixtures this time around are as follows:
- Ecuador (away)
- Netherlands (home)
- Philippines (away)
- Croatia (home)
- Bahamas (away)
- Denmark (home)
- Sweden (away)
- Jamaica (home)

I think a record of 7-1 or better is achievable, with the key games coming in Gameweeks 2 and 3, against Netherlands and Philippines but Sweden away could also be interesting depending on their record at the time. Our aim is to progress as far as we can and with a bit of luck, host the next European Championships. To do that we will need to progress further than any other European team who has not won a medal in the past six seasons. European teams who are not eligible to host next seasons European Championships are Israel, Spain, Italy, Germany and Serbia.

The European teams we will be competing against for the chance to host the next European Championships include Bosnia, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, Portugal, Estonia, Netherlands, Czechia and Hungary so it's going to be a tough ask, but one that is attainable if we perform like I know we can.

The above mentioned teams of Italy, Spain and Israel will be favourites to reach the latter stages of this seasons consolation, along with the likes of Australia who just narrowly missed out on World Cup qualification.

Our campaign begins today vs Ecuador where we will be hoping for a good win to get our season started!

Ecuador 102-127 England
Our campaign kicked off with a good away win and a nice +25PD which is decent considering level enthusiasm and playing away from home. The key performers were the starting trio of Byford, Duguid and Kemp with Kanjilal scoring effortlessly off the bench.

Next up for us is Netherlands who have a very accomplished squad and manager, so it will be a decent test for us, even at home. They enjoyed a comfortable win in Gameweek 1 against Armenia and we're probably their hardest game this season so I'm expecting them to give it a go. They were drawn in the Group of Death in last seasons European Championship where they narrowly missed out on qualification.

As for the overall standings, there were no real surprises in Gameweek 1 apart from 94th ranked Puerto Rico beating Peru at home. There was also a good win for Sweden over Argentina.

Last edited by js8 at 10/2/2024 5:28:25 AM

Netherlands 82-102 England
Back to back wins to start our Consolation tournament campaign and one of our toughest games out of the way. In all honesty we made hard work of this game. With Netherlands incorrectly predicting an outside offence, us using more enthusiasm and home court advantage, I expected to win this pretty easily but it was neck and neck until we pulled out of sight in the last quarter. I expected Netherlands to go with a 3-2 zone so chose a tactic I felt best exploited their deficiencies, in combination with a side that was able to withstand the inside presence that Rooms and van den Ouden offered; Lee was particularly impressive defending the latter.

Next up we make an early trip to Asia to play Philippines. They've started their campaign with two easy wins against Azerbaijan and Pakistan, so they'll have an enthusiasm and home court advantage which will make it difficult, but I do think we have a chance.

In other games this week, Serbia had an excellent away win against Australia whilst Hungary pulled off an excellent comeback in the 4th quarter to narrowly win in Slovakia. Germany were also victorious against Mexico.

England 108-120 Philippines
A very humbling defeat at the hands of Philippines resulted in our first loss of the season. In all honesty, the score-line doesn't tell the whole story here. For the first three quarters we were utterly dominated by Philippines and thanks to garbage time allowing us to claw the deficit back somewhat, it ended with us looking as if we'd put up a good fight against a strong opponent.

Defensively we were a shambles, which is a total surprise as I would always expect our defence to offer more than our offence, but Philippines were able to score at will and we offered very little in trying to stop them. Offensively I thought we were okay. Maybe it was naïve of me to think we had a chance against Philippines away from home, operating on less enthusiasm and them having a much better game shape update. Ultimately, our game shape has not been good enough so far this season. To have 5 out of 15 of the squad on 9GS is extremely disappointing and we are currently unable to select some key players due to them being out of shape.

Next week we welcome our European friends, Croatia. They're in the same boat as us with a 2-1 record and most recently were in a nailbiting finish vs Portugal, in which they lost by 3 points. Again we go into the game with less enthusiasm so our game shape will need to improve as Croatia have a strong squad.

In other games, Israel narrowly beat Slovenia to remain unbeaten and Germany produced a fourth quarter comeback to defeat Ukraine.

Croatia 81-92 England
Not the most convincing of wins at home, but good to get a win regardless and bounce back after last weeks defeat. This game could have proved to be a banana skin for us, given the enthusiasm advantage they had, the injury suffered by Lee to rule him out of the fixture and then the decision for Croatia to use more enthusiasm in the game.

When analysing Croatia, it was clear we had to stop their two main scorers in Ecsegi and Pasaric. With both of these two in optimum game shape and our bigs not being in the best of shape, I felt Croatia would attack inside or go with II as they commonly do and with Kanjilal dropping in game shape, I predicted Croatia would go with an Outside Box to contain Kemp. This is where the selection of Miller and Buchan were important because both players were key offensively in offering scoring if Kemp got isolated and on the defensive end, Miller had the job of looking after Ecsegi. After a shaky start, Miller prevented Ecsegi having a huge impact. I made a decision to call up Jody Hanes on Monday, who (I believe) has become the youngest starter since Luke Innes, back in Season 26, so some 40 seasons ago. Congratulations to Arrows on this achievement and it's exciting to see the further growth of such an exciting prospect.

Next week we travel to the Caribbean to play Bahamas. Should be a game that we're winning with ease and hopefully boosting the PD.

There were plenty of eye-catching games this week, particularly between some European sides. Bosnia beat Romania comfortably at home, whilst Latvia defeated Turkiye. Slovenia bounced back to hand Greece their first loss of the season and Spain remained undefeated after beating Hungary.




Last edited by js8 at 10/23/2024 11:45:48 AM

England 115-87 Bahamas
A comfortable win in the Caribbean extended our record to 4-1. This is one of those games where the sole aim is to boost the PD and climb the standings and a +28PD away from home is okay. Given the PP100 of both teams, it looked like we should have won by a lot more than we did, but again our defence wasn't that good. Duguid and Forrest impressed off the bench and added to the efficiency that Kemp and the returning Harris scored with. Also a congratulations goes to Dave Smith on entering the top 10 assist rankings.

Next week we head back home to play against Denmark, which is a game we should be winning relatively easy at home however they already have two losses and a third would really dent their qualification hopes.

In other games, Greece defeated Italy with both teams now sporting a 4-1 record, Japan secured an impressive home win against Bosnia to remain one of the seven unbeaten sides. Another unbeaten side, Spain defeated Serbia away from home and Turkiye bounced back from defeat last week to beat Portugal.

Denmark 91-123 England
For the first three quarters, we didn’t assert the dominance I expected considering we had home court advantage. We struggled to build a lead that felt comfortable as Denmark scored with relative ease and our offence didn’t fire as I had hoped, until finally in the fourth quarter, things seemed to click as we out scored them by 25 points and built some good PD to climb the standings. With Denmark’s guards having lower game shape, it made sense to attack outside with Duguid, Kemp and Kanjilal in optimum shape. I did expect an inside attack from Denmark and did contemplate an inside GDP, but felt it wasn’t worth the risk. For the second game running, our opponents scored pretty well considering how low their PP100 was.

On Monday, we face another Scandinavian nation in Sweden. Two seasons ago we narrowly beat them at the same stage in the Consolation and I expect another close affair. They’re one place above us in the rankings so it’s a key game for both teams.

In other games, Italy won a close fought battle against Czechia whilst Estonia picked up a great home win against one of the favourites Israel. Russia handed a second loss to Türkiye and Argentina beat Romania.

England 100-73 Sweden
A sense of deja vu about this game, with the two sides meeting at the same stage of the Consolation fixtures two seasons ago, where we were victorious by 4 points in a close fought game. I expected another close encounter with the Swedes, especially with them having HCA and possessing a slight enthusiasm advantage, but after Friday's game shape update, I felt the pendulum swung in our favour, with Sweden's best players not being in great shape.

In terms of tactics, I felt I had two major decisions to make. 1) attack them using LI or II and 2) Outside Box or 3-2 zone as our choice of defence. When Sweden were dealt the cruel blow of losing one of their starting bigs, Borjesson during Saturday's league game, my stance shifted from favouring an Outside Box to a 3-2 zone, as I felt they lost some inside potency, so we could give up some ID in favour of defending the perimeter. I always felt Sweden would go with an Outside Box defence, as they did two seasons ago. For this reason, my thoughts were how best to optimise Kanjilal up against their depleted bigs and he showcased his skills, top scoring with a season high 30 points. In the end the game was a lot easier than I expected, and we could probably have won easily enough using TIE too, but at the end of the day, the win was more important as it means we should enter the knockout round with a 7-1 record and then hope for a nice home draw.

Our final game of the round robin stage is at home to Jamaica, where we will be looking to climb the standings to boost our chances of a favourable draw.

Only two teams remain unbeaten now after Estonia lost a nailbiter away to Netherlands and Uruguay lost to Ukraine. Czechia handed Bosnia a second loss of the season, whilst Hungary defeated Argentina in overtime.

Last edited by js8 at 11/14/2024 9:33:18 PM