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Four aces

Written by HPE-relu_

Most inspired coaches of last WC edition - Schumi- (804797), Rigu-GIGA (12175569), Ellydone (5397227) and goomikko (8865918) - shared their thoughts about most important matches of the WC XXIV.

Ellydone (5397227) - Czech Republic

1. What were your tactical choices for the semifinals and why have you decided to play like that?

After MOTS had to be spent to get into semifinals (569630297), there weren't many choices remaining for us. Apart from defensive formations I considered also 2-5-3 AIM with highest possible midfield which was successful against Canada before (569630297), but our midfield wouldn't be strong enough to beat the opponent's and permeable defense would soon become our grave.
Expecting very offensive setup from the Netherlands, I decided to try pressing with decent midfield instead of CA, because there was absolutely no chance to stop all attacks in case of totally lost ball possesion.

2. Please tell us a few words about the big final (570117946). You would have expected something else before the start of the match?

Not really, there was some chance for CA from Italy, but I doubt it would have better odds than this what they played. It was good setup, Schumi was just too strong with their golden generation and all the TS and TC :)

3. Who are the members of your staff that you want to transmit special thanks and what was their role in this campaign?

Special thanks belong to our headscout knapik (3144605). He's the key person who keeps our NT competitive on the highest level for many seasons.

But both me and him would achieve nothing without many people working hard to help our national team: scouts and managers preparing our top players.
They have my gratitude and share on a medal we won. And I'd also like to thank all fans who didn't stop to believe during hard times...

goomikko (8865918) - Finland

1. It was more strategical than tactical choice for the semifinal (569867825). I wanted to play it cool, when The Netherlands were big favorite in other game and their TC and TS were high and their 2-5-3 with three attacking sectors is good, when they can use it from good position in midfield. After PIC our midfield would have been strong enough to put them probably out from that game, or be favorite against that.
If situation in other semifinal had been tighter, or it's pretty much any other team there, I would have chosen to play PIN (and 3-5-2).

Tactically CA was easy choice after PIC. (Italy's coach offered PIC deal, but I don't make any, so it was easy choice.) Maybe some other CA would have been better, but not huge marginal. I didn't like how low our tactic skill was, but couldn't do much about it. Our low TC limited us a little, too.

2. Like I said in the World Cup forum, it was predictable. The Netherlands' choice was safe. It gives always good odds and it's little too risky to change from it, when you think there might be better games (like there were now). And Italy played pretty much their best game against that. I'm not sure, if some minor fixes can make it better, but that's really minor anyway.

3. Hard question. In Finland we have NT organization (86113), that's independent from coach. They help trainers with what ever help they need. They and trainers had the biggest impact. I hadn't any tactical staff. But I was available for everyone before matches, if they wanted to talk about the match.

Rigu-GIGA (12175569) - Italy

1. In the semifianals (569867825), we and Finland were in the same position. Our TS and our TC were the same and both of us could play in 3 ways: 442 CA, 352 or 253.
We tried to calculate the best way to beat them whatever they've choosed to play.
We also did some tests to decide between PIC or PIN and, obvioulsy, PIN raised our chances for a positive result. It was a very difficult choice in anticipation of the big final where, very probably, Nederland should be our opponents.

2. We knew that they came whit more TS and TC and that they like 253 (whit wingbacks) very much. So we tried to take the ball possession and to attack the middle. It was the only way to have some possibility to win this game.
They played as we thought but there was a large discrepancy in the chances ditribution ratio: 8 vs. 4 instead of 6 vs. 6... But they deserved the win anyway, they were the best for sure.

3. The tacticians are: scricciolo (9475869) (serie A champion), Marteam2004 (2110607) (last coach and winner of Seria A and Italian Cup), Baloth- (6945731) (last U20 coach) and Lukeskiwalker (12807610) (midfielders chiefscout)...
The "calculators" are : TrigrottroKlolala_AP (10193531) (Malta's coach, also Italian coach in past) and scarpa90 (7428801) (Indonesian coach).
We also got a team of spies that analyzed our opponents to give us an easier work before the match analysis: pulle84 (11210611), ernanna-GIGA (8187934), fabius94 (10182307) and walterformica (3258272).

They are the top of Italian staff but there are a lot of other users like our chiefscout (lumaca_FdN (10994007), Chuckmatrix (12329787), Lello66 (8294227), max064-GIGA (12540436), TETRA63 (9497752), eolie (10777632) and alex-rabbit (8202104)) and their supervisor baccomr-fights (8508858) who gived their apports during matches preparation.

PS: we have a community initiative called "School of NT" by Mokiforever (1585064) (Italian coach very long time ago) where we tried to involve users to bring them closer to NT world.

Schumi- (804797) - Netherlands

1. While we were in Round 4, it became more and more likely that the number 2 of Group 2 would have lower TS in the semifinals, so I did everything to win that group and also use a PIN against Finland (569630289). That plan worked, so I faced Czech Republic with lower TS in the semifinals (569867824).
I could keep the upper hand with PIC versus MOTS so that was an easy decision. In the meantime, I was obviously hoping the winner of the other semifinal (569867825) would use TS.
For Czech Republic, it was difficult to see whether they would go for All-Mid, for Counter or for Pressing, but we have enough TS and TC to cover all options with good margin. The 2-5-3 was strong enough in midfield and offensively strong enough to beat any defensive option. Luckily that worked out as planned.

2. The final (570117946) was a bit similar to the semifinal for me. The difference with Italy was a lot smaller, but at least now I could also play MOTS myself. I ended up with a similar lineup due to the similar situation, as I wanted to prepare for an All-Mid option, a counter and Pressing. Italy choose for All-Mid, which was their best option I believe. In hindsight, against this lineup, a 3-5-2 would have been a bit better, but it would not have been very convincing against a defensive line-up.

3. Not too many people had fixed roles, but GM-Lux (364000), Faas_Voorthuizen (1007714) and -Atharos- (1293127) were usually there to give tactical advise, Yoran (1007421) kept making great previews, and of course scouting and the trainers helped massively. The dedication by most of the trainers was unbelievable actually :)

Thank-you very much!

For further questions please join the 4 aces on this thread: (16984896.1)