well, the draw could have been worse i guess.
our next games are:
Away against Lietuvia (15)
Home against Egypt (31)
Home against Greece (36)
Away against Jamaica (94)
Home against Romania (38)
Away against Hong Kong (92)
As far as i can see, we got 1 game that can't be won ( against Lietuvia. If i'd want to win their, i'd need to play with more enthousiasme than Lietuvia, and that is something i'm not willing to risk for just one game). So the game against Lietuvia will be a certain loss (Lietuvia might end up as tournament winners. They got an incredible strong team and for once, they all seem to be in good shape!)
then, we play Egypt, which is a the first time that Belgium will face them. This is a team that usually plays in the world championship. Last time they participated in the consolation tournament, was in season 10. They got a strong team with a few players that could give us trouble. But considering that we got HCA, we should be able to win this. However, their schedule is what worries me most. We don't have the luxury to be wasting any enthousiasme so this could be an though game where decisions will have to be made.
After that, we play Greece home. And this is what i don't understand. Greece has great players, yet they always seem to be unlucky in some way. They've lost against Lietuvia and are still playing Slovenia ( just before us) and our team, before playing 3 relatively easy games. Their schedule after us is relatively easy, so again, need to be carefull for this game.
After those 2 difficult home games, we play an away game against Jamaica. The good news is: they've already played CT vs France, and they play UAE before playing against us, so they might decide to take their chances in search for a win against UAE by playing CT, which would leave them without enthousiasme against us. If their top C remains in poor shape, we shouldn't worry to much about jamaica and our game against them. We'll be trying to run up the score again, just like when we played Barbados.
After a try to Jamaica (where the staff will have to pay extra attention that the players don't start abusing drugs or spend to much time on the sunny beach!) we'll be playing a last though home game against Romania. Romania is a team that Belgium are all to familiar with. They were responsible for Belgium not making it to the european championship in season 17. However, redemption was found last season when Belgium were able to beat romania and thus qualify for the european championship. This will be the 3rd time in the past 4 seasons that the teams meet, so it should be interesting to see what will come forth of this meeting.
And last but not least, we play our final game of this round Robin pool in Hong Kong. A few of their top players are struggling with their gameshape, which would break for us, however, we can be sure that we'll be up against a CT here. So the trick will be to bring home the win, and not worry to much about the point difference. As much as i'd like to run up the point differential in our favor in this last game, i don't like the odds playing away against a team that, were it to be in great GS, could be a problem is they saved their enthousiasme right up untill the last game. Their top player currently have GS 4, and i hope they will remain like that.
Anyhow, anything is possible from a 7-1 finish to a 5-3 finish. a 7-1 finish would guarantee us HCA in the first round ( and probably in the second round aswell, provided that we manage to get out of the first round). a 6-2 record becomes a tricky thing, since we'll then need an excelent point differential to gain HCA in the first round, and shouldn't have any in the second round ( unless the highest ranks team of our opponents first round match would be defeated on their own court). a 5-3 record could end us anywhere between 24th and 40th spot, meaning we'd face immmediate or first round KO elimination.