We are now three games into the european championships.
As mentioned before, the first game against Israel
(85736) was unfortunately played with default lineup and with normal attitude, which resulted in poor minutes distribution and waste of enthusiasm, not to mentioned the roster being locked for the remainder of the season. Not much can be extracted from this game, since many parameters were sub-optimal (to put it lightly), and this game negatively affected the rest of the season. But it is what it is.
The second game against Germany
(85739) was the first game after my return to the NT. Apart from the first quarter, which we won 30-29, it didn't go well. Lower ent, in combination with higher quality and better GS of the German team, resulted in another heavy loss by 41 points. In some other universe, with different starting parameters we might be able to hope on someting here, but the reality was such, that this game was just a routine walkover for our opponents. Unfortunately.
The game against Romania would definitely be important and decisive for us if we started the season with reasonable players selection and tactics (attitude). But now, with lower ent, and also very limited selection of our substitutes, I was almost sure it would have been another loss for us. Surprisingly though, we managed to achieve a nice and tight win with a buzzerbeater of
Herman Hansson (85742). The game was a bit chaotic, first with Romanians leading, then we managed to get a up-to 12 point lead, and kept it at +10 until the final 6 minutes or so. Afterwards, Romania got very close, equalized 8 second to go, but fortunately Hansson managed to get us a morale-boosting victory.
The next opponent is England, a clear #3 in the group, who is naturally hoping of beating either Israel, or, more likely, Germany, for the 2nd spot, which leads from our group to the second stage. Almost undoubtedly they are more concerned with the following games against the aforementioned teams, but first they must deal with us. They still have some advantage in enthusiasm, and are of better quality, so our hopes arent high, but if anything, the game will be another reference to where we stand at the moment.
Overall, the goal is now raised from achieving 3 wins to getting 4 wins. The most reasonable way to achieve this, is by focusing on games against Scotland, Macedonia and Armenia. This would likely place us 4th in the group, and would likely even increase our rating, so not bad considering everything. Naturally, we still have ambitions to win all remaining 4 games.
To all the owners of players, who are currently in the NT, this season your GS management is even more important, since I can rely only on a very tight squad. So please, keep a good eye on your players' minutes and consider buying a sports psychologist, if you haven't got one already.
Also, I realize that some players are left outside of the squad, even if they are on the perfect, or near perfect game shape. One such example is Peter Danielsson of AfK Ballers, another is Jonas Askenskog of Markushhh’s, both of them would easily play in yesterday's game under normal circumstances. It is even more unfortunate, that both players come from two clubs, which also have the two core players of our NT, so they would definitely deserve even more merch. But as I said, things aren't optimal, and one way or another, something will hurt. I will try to get some bonus callups for such players after the season ends, so things will settle money-wise, but too much course correcting would bring another set of problems.