Yesterday we achieved a convincing win over Argentina
(82207). Although we were suffering from very bad game shapes in our team (more about this later), everything else went strongly in our favour, so the victory was never in question.
After initial few minutes, when both teams were still probing each other, we finally stepped up and got ourselves a convincing lead of several points, which led to 22-14 after Q1. In the second quarter we continued with the dominance, first beaking the 10 point barrier with 29-18, and afterwards also touching the 20 points difference (51-31). With a solid lead of 53-35 we could be very optimistic during the half-time break.
Our optimism was proven to have a solid ground when we continued with the dominance, increasing our advantage to 20+ points, and the game was more or less decided by the beginning of the second half. Last quarter saw us increasing the lead even to 30+ points difference, but with some stepping of the gas in the final two minutes, the difference settled in +27 for Sweden.
The match turned out to be almost boring, and retrospectively I regret not playing with "Take it Easy" attitude. However, even normal doesn't hurt us much and knowing that Argentina had 2 losses already prior our match, and also has to play against Greece away in the last regular game, this was their game-to-win, if they wanted to secure a playoff spot. So playing at least normally, or even CT was reasonable to assume. Also, their GS was much stronger than ours, so a closed game was expected. But their TIE, our HCA, and our luck with the tactical outcome made the game very straightforward, even if our GS was really bad.
Here I must emphasize, that having NT players in GS 7 in the middle of the season is not acceptable. GS 8 happens a lot, it is a matter of luck to get a player to 9. But 7 is always a result of (really) bad minutes or injury. And I don't want to point fingers, since I know every owner of NT players has done a lot for the development of the NT team. Injuries happen, bad minutes happen, no individual is to blame here. But yesterday we
had more than half (9 out of 17) players at 7 or below. 3 were at 8, 5 at 9. With so many players it comes down to statistics, and overall stats were really bad, since we could barely put together a 10 man squad for the game. This is a reminder for all of us that we need to contribute to community also on a weekly, GS related basis, otherwise, the NT project cannot be successfull. For example, the roster of Slovenian NT has 16 players, 10 were on 9, 3 on 8, and 3 on 7 - and this is considered a somewhat OK GS week. I don't want to be too harsh, but when it comes to the NT where differences are small, GS is king. And having good GS benefits all of us, not just the NT.
So next week we play against Iran, which is a bit weird opponent, they seem to be on autopilot, but have decent roster, and playing away is hard. Afterwards Ireland, when getting a win at a home game should be a must-do. We are currently 16th, getting two wins would guarantee a top16 spot, but top 8 is probably out of the picture.
Best regards
