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PH71's Cool Runnings Challenge


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Well, we lost 2-0 to Mexico, but I was really pleased with the way we played. We had 54% posession, 10 to 6 shots, and honestly, we deserved at least a point. Then came USA...

USAvGuatemalaOverview.png

I know it was just a 1-1 draw, but the fact that we lead upto 82 minutes really is pleasing. I thought we might snatch it but they got the late goal they needed. But a 1-1 draw away to USA is the best result I've had so far. (In terms if the quality of the side I played and the result I got against them.

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Not an easy group apchivers, but not impossible to get through it. I would be worried about Poland and Romania as well as Germany though, so it is a difficult group. good luck with it :thup:

Unlucky WW, whats the the table look like with that result?

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Last 4 Games of Group:

Mexico 2 - 1 Guatemala

Guatemala 2 - 1 Jamaica

Cuba 0 - 3 Guatemala

Guatemala 1 - 1 U.S.A

So with those results, This is the table:

WorldCupNorthAmericanQualifyingSect.png

So I'm in the play-offs :). I'm hoping for an easy draw so I can get to the world cup.

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Just played my first two friendlies. For some reason I always choose friendly opponents by alternating between a really good team and an awful team, so I got matches with Argentina and Bermuda.

Bahrain 1-6 Argentina

Bahrain 6-1 Bermuda

The game against Bermuda included a goal directly from a freekick taken by my leftback from inside my own half :D.

I also just drew Malaysia in the first round of the WC Quals.

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i think we play the side who wins the fifth place play-off in the Asian qualification stages, and curently South Korea have a 3-0 lead in the first leg over Jordan/ So it looks like I'm playing South Korea.

Looks like a tough draw ahead then. Fingers crossed for you.

Just played my first two friendlies. For some reason I always choose friendly opponents by alternating between a really good team and an awful team, so I got matches with Argentina and Bermuda.

Bahrain 1-6 Argentina

Bahrain 6-1 Bermuda

The game against Bermuda included a goal directly from a freekick taken by my leftback from inside my own half :D.

I also just drew Malaysia in the first round of the WC Quals.

Great way to bounce back from a heavy defeat - wish my guys were able to make that kind of turn around on games!!

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First leg:

We went 2-0 down in the first half, I toguht this was bad, but in the second half, one of my players decided to kick one of there players off-the-ball. Sent off. Then they destroyed us and it ended:

Peru 5 - 0 Guatemala

Not looking good. But, half time in 2nd leg, we 2-0 up, so who knows, maybe with luck, (an awful lot lol), we can make it. Doubt it though

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Euro Championship Qualifying Group Stages - Belarus

Bulgaria 1 - 2 Belarus

Belarus 2 - 1 Romania

Slovenia 2 - 1 Belarus

Belarus 2 - 0 Luxembourg

Albania 0 - 3 Belarus

Belarus 2 - 2 Holland

A great group campaign saw us improbably qualifying for Euro 2008 :D , with the table looking like this. This gives me great hope that we can actually qualify for the World Cup :thup:

On another note, I have masterminded ( ;) ) our rise from 71st in the world rankings to 22nd. I'll keep you informed of our Euro 2008 exploits, where we have drawn the group of death. We are drawn alongside France, Spain and Croatia.

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bawbag the gr8 - Well done one the first leg, that's an impressive debut. Lets hope that Jesse John can carry you all the way to a World Cup.

dave safc - You've got yourself a very tough group there. Do you think you might be able to sneak qualification?

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dave safc - You've got yourself a very tough group there. Do you think you might be able to sneak qualification?

Well, I've just played my 3 games and the answer is no! :D

France 3 - 1 Belarus

Spain 3 - 1 Belarus

Belarus 1 - 1 Croatia

Took the lead in all the games, but didn't quite have enough to hold on on each occasion. It was expected really so I'm not too disheartened, we did well to be even here.

Updates on World Cup Qualification campaign to come shortly :thup:

How's the Panamanian adventure coming along Razer?

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Well, I've just played my 3 games and the answer is no! :D

France 3 - 1 Belarus

Spain 3 - 1 Belarus

Belarus 1 - 1 Croatia

Took the lead in all the games, but didn't quite have enough to hold on on each occasion. It was expected really so I'm not too disheartened, we did well to be even here.

Updates on World Cup Qualification campaign to come shortly :thup:

How's the Panamanian adventure coming along Razer?

Bad luck, but you did well to make it to the finals anyway.

The Panamanian adventure will get some progress later today, only had a friendlies so far and it's been a mixed bag of results. There is some talent within the squad but it's just a case of making the team gel.

Only got a couple of games lined up for 2008, but there are other international dates which I think might be for a tournament. Will find out later though.

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First two friendlies of the year.

JamaicaFriendly.jpg

Perhaps the teams best performance since I took charge. Shows that with a bit of luck, we're able to compete with the best of them.

PeruFriendly.jpg

I wasn't expecting to get much from this one and I'm gald that we kept the score respectable.

We also found out that we'd be playing the British Virign Islands in World Cup Qualifying.

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WCQ1P2R1st.jpg

A dominant win in the first leg practically secured our progress to the second phase.

WCQ1P2R2nd.jpg

Another comfortable victory saw us through to the second phase 9-1 on agg.

SecondPhaseGroup.jpg

The World Cup dream may come to an end here, it will take something special to beat Jamaica or USA to one of the top two spots in the group.

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The Road to South Africa started early for the mighty Uzbeks.

As an unseeded Asian team, the Uzbeks were to play in the 1st round, which is straight knockout! Luckily however, the draw was against the woeful Chinese Taipei side, ranked outside the top 150, which should just be a formality win. However, for much of the 1st leg tie, Chinese Taipei were competing well, and even though we ended up winning 4-2 our fans expected a much more comfortable win than that, especially with 2 conceded away goals.

Next up was a home friendly versus New Zealand, before the all important 2nd leg. Final score, 6-1! We did not dominate the match, but when it came down to finishing the strikers were as ruthless as they come, especially our hat-trick hero Dinamo Kyiv star, Maxim Shatskikh! That was a hell of a confidence booster, just what the doctor ordered.

We headed off to Chinese Taipei, now brimming with confidence, but I warned the players not to get complacent! And they didn't. A thoroughly efficient 4-0 win for the Uzbeks, dominated from beginning to end. Next up, 2 away friendlies against Lebanon and Kuwait

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The Road to South Africa started early for the mighty Uzbeks.

As an unseeded Asian team, the Uzbeks were to play in the 1st round, which is straight knockout! Luckily however, the draw was against the woeful Chinese Taipei side, ranked outside the top 150, which should just be a formality win. However, for much of the 1st leg tie, Chinese Taipei were competing well, and even though we ended up winning 4-2 our fans expected a much more comfortable win than that, especially with 2 conceded away goals.

Next up was a home friendly versus New Zealand, before the all important 2nd leg. Final score, 6-1! We did not dominate the match, but when it came down to finishing the strikers were as ruthless as they come, especially our hat-trick hero Dinamo Kyiv star, Maxim Shatskikh! That was a hell of a confidence booster, just what the doctor ordered.

We headed off to Chinese Taipei, now brimming with confidence, but I warned the players not to get complacent! And they didn't. A thoroughly efficient 4-0 win for the Uzbeks, dominated from beginning to end. Next up, 2 away friendlies against Lebanon and Kuwait

A very good start there, especially the impressive victory over New Zealand.

Lets hope the next round of qualifying is just as easy.

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Panama are still on course to make an appearance in South Africa.

We are currently half way through the Second Phase Group games and have had some surprising results.

Grenada Away

USA Home

Jamaica Home

These results have left the table looking like this.

I was also amazed when the rankings came out - with only Montenegro going up more places than we did.

Looking ahead to the remaining group games, a win over Grenada will have us into the next round.

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The road to South Africa: Uzbekistan

Lebanon(A)(fr)-The bookmakers couldnt choose between us. Both teams had comfortably qualified for the third round and promised to be a juicy encounter. These matches were crucial because it would be these sort of teams that we will have to fight off to qualify for the final round. The 1st half was even and ended 1-1. However, thanks to an inspired team-talk we took control in the 2nd half in impressive fasion, and got the rewards. Final score, 3-1 win.

Kuwait(A)(fr)-A very similar opponent to the previous opponent, who had also qualified for the next round, again away from home. Of course, my ambition was for another win. The guys put in a beautiful 1st half performance and led by 2 at the interval. However maybe due to the fact of too many subs, they pegged us back and, despite being the better team, itended up drawing 2-2.

Asian 3rd round draw- Unfortunately, the draw was not ideal. The seeded team of the group was Iran, which was quite handy, as compared to the other seeded teams such as japan and australia, they didnt seem quite as scary! Unfortunately however, we were also drawn with North Korea who are one of the toughest unseeded teams. The final team in the group was Singapore, who I wouldn't expect to challenge. Of the 4 teams, only 2 qualify, and it seems that N. Korea and Iran will push me all the way. Wish me luck!

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Thanks Razor! Yeah, easyish compared to your group. I can't believe how well you are doing, beating the USA and all!

Panama win their 1st olympic gold medal this summer, and then in with a shout of a world cup birth. What great sporting times...

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I can't believe it either, I was expecting to struggle in this group and be lucky to make 3rd.

I don't know how the third phase works, but looking at the other teams that can possibly go through it's going to get a whole lot harder. Mexico, Costa Rica & Trinidad will give us hard games, but we have shown that anything is possible at the moment so I'm not counting us out just yet.

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Belarus Update

We warmed up for our forthcoming World Cup qualifying campaign with a friendly at home to Lithuania. We laboured to a 2-1 win, which didn't inspire me with too much confidence.

Now the big stuff, World Cup qualifying stages...

Group 4 looks like this;

Albania

Azerbaijan

Belarus

France

Greece

Slovakia

France are the obvious threat in this group, I am expecting them to win the group and for us, Greece and possibly Slovakia to be fighting for 2nd place.

It's important to take 12 points off Albania and Azerbaijan, and to beat Greece and Slovakia at home, while trying to take at least a draw away. Anything off France would be a bonus.

Belarus 3 - 0 Azerbaijan

Good solid win at home to get us off to a great start.

Belarus 4 - 2 France

belarusfraez9.jpg

Wasn't expecting that! A fully deserved win over one of the best teams in the world, 6 points out of 6 and we're flying.

Greece 3 - 2 Belarus

Gutted to lose this, we were 2 -1 up and two late goals, one in the 95th minute, saw us come away with our first defeat of the campaign.

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The road to South Africa: Uzbekistan

North Korea (a): 2-2 An injury crisis before the match left us without our star striker Shatskikh, and it looked very bad at half-time at 2-0. Luckily though we pulled it back.

Singapore (h): 3-1 An expected win against the worst team in the group, comfortable from the start.

Iran (a): 0-2 Very disappointing performance against the strongest team in the group. They utterly dominated, could have been more. Worrying. Level on points but ahead on GD over N. Korea at the halfway stage.

North Korea (h): 3-0 It was a must win game for the Uzbeks, and they won. Convincingly. Nearly qualified for the final stage.

Singapore (a): 3-1 Despite dominating the match, there were worrying moments and it werent till the 87th minute that the game was wrapped up. Unbelievably, North Korea had pulled a shocker and defeated Iran. This meant we were yet to officially qualify but held a vastly superior goal difference (9 better).

Iran (h): 0-2 Once again a very disappointing result against Iran, although they didn't dominate as much as before. North Korea beat Singapore by 3, but the Uzbeks still scrape through.

Final group draw: Saudi Arabia, Japan, Iraq and China. The Saudis and Japan I reckon are out of our league, but I think it it possible to scrape a 3rd place finish. Only problem with that would be that in all likelihood we would then need to beat either Aussies, S. Korea or Iran from the other group, all of which would be a very tough task.

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Germany visited Iceland and left with a draw:

09032008223920ny8.jpg

Fair result tbh although I really wanted this win.

Next up came Kazakhstan away which I really expected to win:

09032008231725vf8.jpg

And the boys did good. Sigurdsson with a hattrick - and he's a defender :D

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