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Hello again!

After the last year's european championships, which were fairly successful for us, we are now waiting for the beginning of consolation tournament. Our opponents are already known, and again it will be a difficult route towards playoffs:

Argentina (home): A South American nation, which seems a bit weaker than in the past. This is also confirmed by its ranking (56th, we are 45th), so we are definitely aiming for a win here. But it will be a difficult match, although home court makes us favorites. Early season game shape will be very important this time. Argentina reached the second round of last year's american championsips, but then they finished in the last place in the group. Their last AC medal goes back to not so distant season 59, so they can definitely do better.

Malta (away). One of the weakest European teams (ranked 88th), but these days, with draftees also coming from Utopia, you have to be careful even against the smallest nations. Especially if playing away. Expecting to win this one, but we need to go 100% ready into this game. Malta achieved some modest success in the last EC, beating higher ranked Cyprus and thus getting their first EC win after season 59.

Azerbeijan (home). Since this is a home game, it should be one of the easiest of the regular season games. Azerbeijan is ranked 89th, we played against them in the last euros, won quite easily despite low ent, so there really shouldn't be any problems. Azerbeijan finished last in the group, also loosing to Wales, another outsider.

Slovakia (away). Slovakia is on the similar level than we are (rank 41st), maybe slightly better. Also, their home court gives them much advantage, so this game will be hard to win. We will try, though. Slovakia finished 4th (just like us) in the group of last year's EC, ahead of Germany, and behind eventual winners Finland, Greece and Slovenia. They managed to grasp a win against Slovenia with a CT, which effectively put Greece ahead of Slovenia in the battle for the second place and second round of the championships.

New Zealand (home). We have recently played a friendly game against NZ (ranked 71st), and lost, so the win is not so obvious. But if we want to achieve something in this consolation tournament, this game is a must-win, I can't deny that. It is a home game, so our chances are quite high. NZ didn't play very well in Asian championships last year, they got eliminated in the first round, after securing a single win against Thailand.

Iceland (away). Another game against a lower ranked (72nd) opponent, but this time it is away game. The roster of Iceland doesn't look very strong, and they finished last year's euros without a single win (also lost against Moldova), so of course aiming for a win here.

England (home). England is ranked much higher than we are (21st), also thanks to their successful EC campaign, where they managed to qualify for the 2nd round. There, they also managed to secure one win and finished ahead of Czech republic. But our home-court advantage will guarantee an interesting match and some sort of deja-vu, since we already played them in the 7th game of last consolation tournament (74349). We lost that one, but it was very close.

Australia (away). Ranked 20th, Australia is the highest ranked team we will face in the regular season. Given it is an away game, it will definitely be one of the most difficult games. Hopefully, we will secure playoffs by then, if not, crunch time is still an option. Australia played quite well in the last season's Asian championships, qualifying for the second round, and finishing 3rd in the group. This gave them a chance to qualify to world cup, but they lost a tight game against France.

So, to sum it up, we have four easier games, two very even (England, Argentina) and two difficult to win (Slovakia, Australia) games. We need to win 5 in order to qualify further.

Last edited by Deschamps at 9/24/2024 8:22:12 AM

Just to provide some summary of season 66.

Unfortunately, the consolation tournament format is quite dull, and there is not much at stake for smaller teams like us. Out quality gets us to a point, where we have nice chances to make it into playoffs, but every further step is extremely difficult to achieve.

This was also the case in the just-finished season. We managed to win what was required from us, and didn't win games, where we were an underdog. The most difficult win was achieved just in at the start of the season against Argentina (76732), but even that was a game with the home court advantage, so I silently expected the game to be easier than it actually was.

We had some problems with injuries and bad game shapes, especially from our big men. Dallius and Börjesson, who are our leaders among high players, were absent for many of the later games, which resulted in somewhat lesser resistance against stronger teams. The most important game of the season was played against Estonia in the playoffs (77288). Unfortunately, also here we couldn't count on the aforementioned veterans, which probably cost us a victory.

Overall, the past season was average for us result-wise. Although we finished at the 4th place in the S65 european championships, we still didn't improve our rating enough to be seeded 4th for the upcoming EC. But our group, which consists of Lithuania, Italy, Estonia, Ukraine, Denmark, Armenia, Azerbaijan and us, still allows us to aim for higher places, althouth top 2 are probably out of reach.

I must emphasize, that although results of each and every season are important to me, I see my involvement as a long term project. I have monitored and coordinated the progress of younger players, and currently we can be very optimistic about the progress of 18-23 year olds. This generation will most likely get one or more levels above the quality of the current generation. However, even players, who are currently in the NT, are still young and will play together for a long time. We have now lost Tommy Fyhrhult, who managed to get on the very top of all time appearance and points list, and will loose Peter Borjesson after the following season. But afterwards, the core will be very young and the quality of the NT will be decent enough to be competitive.

As you may see, I am again enrolled at the NT elections, and I hope you will again elect me for the role of Sweden NT manager.