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Well here we are again. Thanks for the votes. There was an increase in the number of voters this season which must be a good thing. So now I can turn my attention to the coming Euros.

As is always the case the draw was very important. We've got three teams who qualified last time round, whereas we didn't, and four teams that only managed 6 wins between them last time.

Iceland won none, Georgia(Sakartvelo) won once, Romania won two (but had a very tough draw), Armenia won three (but did well in the consolation last season.

Estonia qualified ahead of Latvia with a 6-1 record before going 0-5 in the next stage. Lithuania also went 6-1 in the first round, but managed 2 wins in the next stage. Finland, who are always strong, also finished 6-1 and came third in the next stage with a 3-2 record.

There are many ways of looking at the draw. We could be negative and think we can't qualify from a group with three qualifiers from season 27. However, in some ways it works in our favour. Those three teams have to play each other, and its possible no one team will win all their games. Also, none of the three actually topped their group.

If there's one thing that the last two seasons has shown, its that we needn't be intimidated by anyone. Yes there are some extra issues this season with a couple of players being a little old for this level, but also we have younger players who hopefully will improve a little.

While I do have an embryonic plan in my mind, its flexible enough that I can adapt it as the group evolves. Though I expect the group to be fairly uneventful in terms of what happens in the games not involving us. I think they're fairly predictable. We need to be careful to avoid upsets the first few weeks, as I don't expect many elsewhere.

No ridiculous promise of qualification here, but as always, you'll get my best effort.

Gully

We've probably got our best chance of qualifying in a long long time, 6-1 isn't beyond us with that draw although 5-2 is equally possible.

looking forward to seeing how we get on this season ;), hoping for a 6-1

Good luck mate. Will be the first season I keep an eye on the NT fixtures and looks promising.

Thanks guys. Especially the two EBBL guys for raising expectations lol.

We have of course never qualified before but I don't suppose there's any harm in whipping up a frenzy of expectation.

Certainly a finish like two seasons ago would be a failure.

Probably some surprises in the squad today. Frankly I was surprised by some of them. There are some in the squad with respectable game shape, which I've previously made clear I won't choose. In this case I've had to. But I do know that those players I've chosen are close to strong game shape as I record dmi each week and can compare against the base levels. I also feel I can trust those managers to improve GS as they did last season.
Also did not expect to be using both Hongs and Sharpling but as always they've forced their way into the squad. They're old but still have the talent.
Huge credit to Mikramus for letting me know in advance about his players' game shape. Mistakes are understandable, and I know from previous seasons its a one off.

Icelandic Volcano Fails To Disrupt English Flights
Bit of a strange one stats wise for us. Probably a week one thing. Iceland came out in a bit of a frenzy. I was a little worried through the early stages that they looked like getting on top. They scored at will at times, but the second quarter saw the inevitable drop off as they seemed to tire.

The second half followed a similar pattern. Good start by them, but with us looking stronger as the half wore on.

Esposto led scoring with 21pts, Sharpling had 20, 13 of which came in the first quarter when he kept us in the game. He also led assists with 8. Marshall made 8 assists too out of an impressive team total of 30. MacAusland managed 17 rebounds, I think the highest of any England game I've managed. For quite a while only MacAusland and Simpson had any rebounds, one the statistical oddities that puzzled me early.

Iceland crunched us; they were the only team in the group who did that. So beating them quite comfortably took a pretty good team performance imo. Very pleasing first game of the season.

Lithuania appeared to be struggling before half time, but in the end won their game quite easily. Estonia left it even later, only taking the lead in the final quarter against Georgia. Finland were just on top throughout their game.

Too early to say how its going but a good start. Plenty more to do.

Hey everyone, I am new to this game and I have stumbled across this thread. Read a few post's and it seems like England are going places. As I am starting out and have little idea of what to do, what is the best course of action for myself in order to help the national team's? I realise that it might take me time to e.g. save money to train players etc.But I am looking forward to helping all of you anyway I can and am able to. Including getting to know all of you.

First things first. Well done for finding anything on the forums. That and the fact that you haven't spent any money yet is a good start.

Reading this could help: (http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/forum/read.aspx?thr...)

This is an enormous help: (http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/forum/read.aspx?thr...)

The next thing after that would be to say if you need further help ask either on the England forum (this one) or the Help forum.

As for helping with the NT/u21s, normally the most important part of that involves the draft, which has unfortunately happened only a few weeks ago, or buying a trainee, usually a young one, and training him. I'd not necessarily recommend that as a good idea for a new team, but I do believe there's a lot of value in training players for your own team.

And welcome to the game.

Last edited by Gully Foyle at 10/29/2014 5:25:35 PM

Welcome to the game Thorus! Best of luck with your season and hopefully after reading the links Gully sent you can start to build a better knowledge of the game.
Anything you want help with, don't be afraid to ask!

Welcome to the game fella, feel free to ask questions and we'll do what we can to support. Best way to start and spend money early on is with your arena, in division 3 you will make a steady amount of money and have chance to expand. Balance your ticket prices to get your arena about 90% full to keep a good cash-flow.

When it comes to training first thing to do is improve your coaching staff to a superior (level 5) coach, then you focus on a couple of good 18 or 19 year olds from the draft and train them. No need to do that til the end of this season. The best way to train for the U21 is connect up with the U21 coach on the forums and get them to advise a training regimen.

In terms of how you play your players, try and get your players around 60 -70 minutes of game time per week. That will make their game shape strong or proficient which will make sure you stay competitive in division 3. Longer term the best strategy is to train up your players and buy in only what you need to fit around your trainees. It may take a few seasons, but the long term strategy is best.